Foam, Johann's Trip, Elastic and Fabric!

 We headed up to Johann's today to get foam for the tail, it was 50% off today so I was quite pleased to stock myself up on it! Hopefully I can finish the entire costume without needing more, however I do intend to go up there again for fabric glue once we get that far along I'm sure. The foam is mostly 2 inch, one sheet of 3 inch and it was a fantastic deal. Originally we were going to get cheaper, white foam however Johann's doesn't sell any in more than cushion size and Hobby Lobby was closed (on a Sunday, which was something I hadn't even thought about personally).

 Plus my old pile of foam which is only slightly touched. For the feet I used some one inch from the roll and an entire scrap of 2 inch. I messed up a lot, though.

 Foam detail.

 My now complete pile of foam. And yes, I used the tail elastic to hold that roll together.

 Since I had comparisons of the other widths, heres three and two inch compared. The three is mostly to wrap around the base of the tail, will save some gluing.

 The feet! I realized I hadn't taken a picture of them side-by-side. I still intend to make the inner left toe (right foot) smaller to match, though.

 I left the room for a bit and my dog decided to take a seat on the nice foam, ahaha.

 The materials! A hot glue gun--all this time I had never imagined hot glue being the best glue for the suit but after having to go outside and use the E-6000/Super 77 every time, I'm glad to have bought the gun. It's got two settings so hopefully it won't melt the foam (or my fingers). More E-6000 and Super 77 as I'm lower on it, glue sticks, elastic for the jaw when we get there and a pin cushion because a different dog decided to chew our old one up, ahaha.

Last time we got elastic we bought the wrong kind--I saw a Caninehybrid video with Riley talking about different types of elastic and what worked best. We bought woven elastic instead of knitted, but we've got other places in the plans to use the woven so we didn't need to return it. Here are the differences you can find. The knitted will say KNITTED elastic, obviously.

 The lines go horizontally, are very thin and not very noticeable. It looks like waistband material.

 The woven elastic says so, and the lines go vertically instead. They are thick and wide, and the stretch isn't as easy as the knitted.

 The fabric we found at Johann's. I still can really only see buying it online instead of Johann's due to different factors, but we may end up purchasing one of these (although I kind of doubt it, it's not really what we want).

Details:

They're both 100% polyester.

The one on the left is very thin and light but at the same time feels almost like pleather. It's very shiny and it looks great in person but when the light hits it and it shines, it looks very ugly and fake.

The one on the right (suede) feels like it could be painted, but the one on the left does not.

 The shiny, pleather like stuff. I love the color to it but I just wish it weren't shiny. We've wanted to get 100% cotton because that will breathe better. This stuff surprisingly feels like it would let air through.

 HD pictures of fabric whoaaaa. I don't think we'll use it though, due to the shininess and the scale pattern just doesn't look right either.

 We got quite a bit of fabric for just 85¢ apiece.

 The other stuff is very soft, not much like a dinosaur but to paint it it's probably going to need to be soft. It feels somewhat like carpet, although it's suede. The color is just what I like but it's pretty thick, heavy and I don't think it would breathe much at all. It also don't really like the way it looks but it seems practical.

 At conventions, people use unnecessary flash a lot. I also intend to wear this for Halloween. So naturally I went into the closet and tested to see how the fabric looks with the flash.

 It looks pretty good from afar, but not so much upclose.

 With the shininess to it, it just doesn't look good. At all, really.

I dunno. Any opinions on it? The suede will be airbrushed with color variances, design and such to add realism to it.

Working on the feet and hands.

 Here's how my fingers fit inside the hands. It doesn't look at all comfy but it feels just fine when they're inside the gloves.

 The stance, as well as modeling the mesh suit. It breathes and fits well. I'll be leaning forward like this for pictures/playing around, but walking around straight up due to the strain this puts on someone's back.

 Close to being finished! I staystitched them three times total, I don't want any seams popping out entirely.

 However, the hands constantly would fall down and slide off so I decided to put some elastic in the wrists. I just pinned it tight around my wrist, then sewed it into the actual glove.

 Sewn.

 Slightly loose, but that's all right.

 My work area. The floor of our bedroom. I've got the reference pictures, computer to have the ones unprinted as well as tutorials and videos up, scissors, marker, foam, everything.

 We got these Crocs at Dick's Sporting Goods for about $30. Kind of expensive but they've actually got some pretty durable bottoms so I'm all right with that.

 My super nice Friskars Spring-Handled scissors! Not overly pricy but golly, they're just so nice for doing so much cutting.

 Pictures of the feet as well as the gridding that was done on them.

 I started out by cutting out some three inch x three inch x three inch blocks of foam, and cutting those down to look more rounded and toe like.

 (note; none of the reference pictures you see are done by me!) We did crop out the rest of the dino and got this very good picture of just the leg.

 I then measured the edges and then put the same measurements onto the foam and cut it out to put along the sides to make it wider.

 Progress. I ended up removing the pieces from the back because I didn't like them, though. Made it look really weird. 

 Other foot.

Then the two completed feet! I took a quick video walking around in them so I could see how it moved and looked, and I think it looks pretty good. The tops have been trimmed more and the sides added to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIyWnTHDUSk

Plastic Mesh, Athletic Mesh & Velcro Vs. Elastic.

I've been kind of slacking on working on the costume due to needing help from my mum and not generally having the help around, as she's been busy lately. So I've been doing the things I can do on my own! First thing I've worked on, the plastic mesh head to secure the raptor head on top of my own. I used Matrice's tutorial for it, and found it quite simple. Only issues with it were that I had to have help make sure it was tight enough while holding the strips together, then to help mark it so I knew where to cut. For this, I used a very big, plastic needle with a huge hole used for needlepoint (on needlepoint mesh, who would have guessed, right?) and sewed through the holes just as if it were normal. It worked well, very strong and secure fit. We'll see how it works on the final product as far as staying on, but for now it seems very secure and I'm sure it will be more so once with an elastic jaw.

 I made the strips two inches wide, which seems to have worked well.

 This is the athletic mesh bodysuit, which we purchased the fabric from Seattle Fabrics. We ordered two yards, which was not enough for myself as a 5'3, 100 lb. girl. The arms fell off the sides of the fabric and that was all right, we used scraps however one of them we plan to replace as it came out pretty messy. I recommend saving yourself the trouble instead of working with scraps, just go ahead and order enough. We'll need more for more than just repairing the arm so it's all right, as we need more anyway.

 Originally we were going to use a zipper to get in and out of the front, however we decided to use velcro as it felt like it would be more trustworthy and less likely to fail or break or fall apart. The sewing machine HATED the velcro, so after two of them I went to hand sewing it. It's not the adhesive kind, we didn't think it would be enough for it to hold. 

 I basted the entire thing (loose stitches) several times to modify certain places however I also staystitched it three times. Fursuit makers, costumers who create fur-costumes made to look like animals (sometimes anthropomorphic) often charge pretty hefty prices to staystitch it more than once which I felt was unreasonable, however I can definitely see why after doing it myself three times. I'm working on a fabric with many holes in it, meaning the sewing machine doesn't grasp it very well, so I assume it's also difficult to sew fur as well, if not harder than a mesh fabric like this. Good side of that though is that it breathes well, and that when basting it didn't matter if I made a gazillion holes in it that I didn't like. This suit will be used to glue on the foam, and generally used to help put the costume on.

 On the back of the ankles, we've installed a zipper on each ankle. The ankles were very loose when we made it, as my heels would not force through the open holes in the bottom. I didn't like the looseness, I wanted the suit to fit very well so that the foam would stay on firmly so we decided to put little 7 inch zippers along the backs of my ankles to keep it tighter while I could still get my feet in. Shouldn't be too hard to cover with foam, either.

 The elastic...ugh. This elastic is eight inches wide, one yard of it, which I thought would be way more than enough but I'm quite petite even and it's just barely enough. This is to attach to the tail, and keep it held up. The velcro I have begun attaching and I'm telling you, it's a pain. The entire thing is very thick and hard to pierce through with a hand sewing needle and has pretty much rubbed my fingers raw. I haven't taken any pictures but we couldn't find any velcro sheets, so I've cut it into eight inch strips, six of them, to attach and will take pictures when we've got that going. 

Baby Steps.

This is the current "outline" I have for this project. It isn't overly detailed, but it will give you an idea of what I will be trying to cover here. This isn't necessarily complete, but it does help! There's a lot to do and I'm still in stage one, getting ready to begin the second. Very exciting stuff, here. :D

STAGE ONE:

Buying materials.

- Duct Tape Dummy.

- List what materials to buy and the places in which I bought them.

- Choosing materials for the project.

- The money spent to buy all the necessary materials and how much of what.

- Sew the mesh beginning body suit and try it on.

STAGE TWO:

Carving the basic foam body to get the general shape.

Pictures of the foam before I started, maybe a video of how I’m carving it, how I’m putting it together, showing how to repair it if a mistake is made. This is a very big step.

Tail: Pool noodle. Carve it so that it is very long and nice, use a strong elastic to keep it around the body properly.

STAGE THREE:

Carving the details, including teeth, gums, tongue, nose, scale detailing, claws and the eye outline. Reference pictures as well. Put the eyes on before I put the fabric as well as any other details.

STAGE FOUR:

Putting all the foam together to form the dinosaur onto the bodysuit.

STAGE FIVE:

Covering the dinosaur in fabric, showing how I sewed it together, how I glued it, how it all fit together. Showing how I now have a dinosaur costume base.

STAGE SIX:

Painting the dinosaur.

STAGE SEVEN:

Try on the costume to make sure everything looks right. Finish the closer up painting such as the teeth or cover in fabric if we decide that’s the better option. Fix anything that doesn’t look “right.”

STAGE EIGHT:

Glue all the feathers on.