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Brie the mouse - fursuit and write-up! by Kittrel

Brie the mouse - fursuit and write-up!

Kittrel

August - 2012 -

I finished Brie in time for FA:U a few weeks back! Some people may have seen the WIP's in my scraps folder as I worked on here, but here she is all in one piece. I'm also doing a little write-up here. Feel free to skip this, I might be long winded. XD

Brie is my first full fursuit. I made a coyote partial many years ago, and along the way have done many ears and tails and other random costume parts. I was hoping sharing my experience making this might encourage others to try their paw at it, and maybe we can all help each other out where we get stuck. :3 Costume building is a challenging but totally rewarding experience. I got to dabble in all sorts of crafty things besides sewing and there is SO MUCH problem solving it'll keep your brain busy so you never get bored. I brainstormed in the shower, at work when I was doing a boring task, in my SLEEP. It was fun. So now, part by part!

HEAD

Those crazy huge ears are made of foam and have sturdy plastic placemats inside to keep them rigid. They are curved along a coat-hanger base to give them shape. They're fitted in with industrial strength velcro so I can remove them for storage and transport. I don't even know where I could put this thing if the ears weren't removeable, they're big enough I smack into walls and sometimes people. XD I do have to wear a bandana over my hair to keep the velcro from sticking to my hair. I should invest in a balaclava to wear under it someday. The eyes are printed bumper stickers from zazzle, so they're waterproof and fadeproof! They're on plastic I cut from white funnels I found at the dollar store. The lids, lashes and brows are all felt. The teeth are fleece covered foam but I'm thinking of upgrading them to a harder material, they have a tendency to move around and get pushed out. The whiskers are fishing line - the strongest stuff I could buy at Dick's Sporting Goods. I think they use it for catching marlin. The tuft of hair is from a kid's play wig I also got at the dollar store. I chopped it up and sewed it together so it was a nice thick floof! I won't talk about carving foam and furring masks because you can find that info everywhere. :3

BODY

I used this pattern to make the body: http://mccallpattern.mccall.com/m61.....hp?page\_id=915 I was absolutely terrified, but it came out great. I had to modify it to give her a white belly and wrists and ankles. I used a big toothed sport zipper hoping it would be less likely to get tangled in fur, and made sure my seams overlapped the zipper so they'd hide it. Sewing a zipper was a new experience but not bad once I read up on how to do it. The bodysuit had to be taken in a LOT because that pattern is really baggy. But it's better to take something in than try to make something too small bigger! It could stand to be taken in a bit more, maybe. I also had to add some extra fur to the shoulders to keep them from slipping down.

KERCHIEF

I didn't actually make this, I bought it at Target! I think it was meant to be a swimsuit coverup? It's huge! I wanted Brie to have some sort of colorful accessory and bandanas are a canine thing (to me anyway). It helps keep the neck in place and makes her a bit more recognizable. The little medallion with her name on it I made from wood cutouts I found at the craft store and painted and varnished. The letters are puffy stickers. It's attached to an elastic hairtie so I can use it to cinch the kerchief on.

GLOVES

These were the hardest part of the costume, I kid you not. I redid them at least 3 times. They are mainly fleece, which is not forgiving at all about hiding your mistakes. They ended up being 16 pieces EACH, and have pretty detailed sewn on vinyl pawpads. I am afraid they look too small in comparison to the oversized tooniness of the overall costume so one day I will probably redo them yet again. :P

TAIL

Fleece and polyfill. I had a great time adding in that little curl, and working with fleece which has no pile direction it was so simple to do! If I did it again in a perfect world I would probably carve the tail from foam - I've washed the tail once and the polyfil is already starting to get a little lumpy. I also have to figure out how to fix the tail's attachment point - it does not sit smoothly and kind of looks a bit awkward. Despite those little problems the tail was the simplest and most straightforward thing I did and I'm glad I started with that!

FEET

They're based on slippers with carved foam toes glued on. I covered the whole thing in fleece and ended up using some polyfil to fill out some places and make everything more smooth. I'm quite proud of them, and the sewing was actually pretty easy! I had to add a lining to keep the polyfil from getting into the part where my feet go which was a little painstaking since it was handsewn. I used a pink yoga mat for the soles. DO NOT use yoga mats for soles. :( They are wearing out after 2 events. I'm not sure where I can find a suitable replacement material in pink, but I'll be on the lookout. In the meantime I have lots more yoga mat I can add on as needed, heh.

I started talking about making Brie in spring and tossing around ideas. Compared to my last costume this process was quite speedy! It still took at least 4 months though. I'm sure practice makes people faster. If you're interested in more about the process of creating you can see lots of pics in my scraps! A great resource and one I use often is the fursuit community on livejournal. Check 'em out, there are amazingly helpful folks over there.

Critiques are welcome, like I said I still have some things I want to fix!

Hope to give you some mouse-hugs at events! :3

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    Brie! I last saw Brie at FurTheMore. I'd say don't change a thing. It's a really fun suit as is, really stands out. Even more impressive now that I know it's your first full suit.