While waiting for the zippers to arrive for the body, I started working on Rocky’s paws. I used as a reference Matrices’ excellent tutorial and pattern for basic paws. Of course, Rocky has only 3 fingers, so I had to modify the pattern for my purposes. After some dexterity tests I decided to group my…
Monday night (Mar 11) I finished marking out all the fursuit body pieces (4 front and back panels, 4 sleeve front and back pieces). I then set out to cut them all out (sans seam allowance, as marked). The best way to do this is from the back with a sharp blade, cutting just through…
This weekend has been some finishing work on the tail and hat, which has entailed an enormous quantity of handwork. Finishing the tail While the main assembly of the tail was complete, neither end had been stitched up yet. The tip of the tail had been left open to make it possible to insert the…
Next up is building Rocky’s body. He’s such a simple character design that I’m going for a very simple onesie style fursuit rather than one with sculpted padding. I’m using the Andrea Schewe Simplicity 2853 pattern for the starting point. I will, however be using a number of tricks (including Matrices’ technique for installing the…
This weekend I set out to build Rocky’s tail. It’s quite long/tall (extends above his head in many animation frames), and I want the costume to be generally huggable, so I needed it to be soft. I detailed previously my decision to laminate NuFoam stabilized fiberfill with an inner piece of EVA to give it…
One of Rocky’s signature features is his giant fluffy tail (it often rises taller than his head in the cartoons). After finishing his head and flying cap, that tail is my next major construction challenge (and I only have 4 weeks left! eep!). I investigated several ways to make the tail free-standing and self-supporting, but…
We need Bullwinkle’s iconic magician’s top hat for our on-stage presentation, but Moose has Large Head. Plus, packing issues.While I have an actual opera hat (collapsible Top Hat) it is Kevin-sized and far too small for the Moose. I found a popup cylindrical black hamper/wastebin that was 12×15″ and ordered it. The proportions are off…
The last detail for the goggles was to attach them to the cap. It turned out I had some pale blue plastic snaps which were an almost perfect snap. A little bit of finesse in placing them, and Rocky can now wear his goggles on top of his head (as he is always drawn in…
Rocky now has goggles! This was a bit of a trial. After making the basic pattern, I started cutting frames to support the lenses out of some 3mm thick heavy cowhide in my stash. It took 3 iterations to get the pattern the right size, as I wanted to wrap it in the light blue…
The sides of Rocky’s aviator cap were a bit poofy when I was done, so I obsessively picked out about 5 inches of each (double stitched) seam and adjusted them. The fit is much nicer now. Goggle Design — patterning Rocky’s goggles are more of a suggestion than functional — they never move from the…
