# Slim Paws Guide/Help?



## Queen Brie (Mar 1, 2021)

Looking to build my own fursuit but when looking for the gloves everything is usually puffy puppy paws (which are adorable) but they don't fit with the suit I have in mind. Does anyone know how to create slim paws w/ claws or know of any good sources/patterns that I can use? I looked up with google and youtube and couldn't find anything that was specific. Thanks!


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## Trevorbluesquirrel (Mar 1, 2021)

You mean you want really thin paws, with really short fur?

I'm guessing its a Rat you're making?

Gloves like this, maybe?






I'm no expert, but I'm not sure if slim gloves would have enough material to securely attach claws to!

To compare, here's my paws!





The thick fingers and padding allowed the claws to be sewn in tight................................................maybe!? Really have no idea overall!

Maybe asking other makers 4 advice would be the best option?


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## Queen Brie (Mar 2, 2021)

Trevorbluesquirrel said:


> You mean you want really thin paws, with really short fur?
> 
> I'm guessing its a Rat you're making?
> 
> ...


That's actually closer to what I am looking for than what I've found! They don't seem too puffy or difficult to use. I may try to shave the wrist fur down a little bit more but that is very much what I am looking for


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## Kellan Meig'h (Mar 2, 2021)

I would suggest you make the cuffs long, so there is a bit of overlap between your sleeves and gloves. Keeps wrist skin from showing when you don't what that to happen. Or, so what I did and use the small glove snaps to attach my gloves to my sleeves. Just make sure you can unsnap them by yourself. In my case, my hoof-tips on my fingers (three fingered gloves so two and two + thumb) takes away just enough dexterity to undo the snaps. That's why my wife is my handler and I know she will undo them if I ask.

BTW, I think she likes that small aspect of my fursuit . . .


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## Queen Brie (Mar 2, 2021)

Kellan Meig'h said:


> I would suggest you make the cuffs long, so there is a bit of overlap between your sleeves and gloves. Keeps wrist skin from showing when you don't what that to happen. Or, so what I did and use the small glove snaps to attach my gloves to my sleeves. Just make sure you can unsnap them by yourself. In my case, my hoof-tips on my fingers (three fingered gloves so two and two + thumb) takes away just enough dexterity to undo the snaps. That's why my wife is my handler and I know she will undo them if I ask.
> 
> BTW, I think she likes that small aspect of my fursuit . . .


No touchy! Sounds like a fun game to play. Next challenge: can you undo her bra while wearing those gloves? My boyfriend can barely do that with his regular hands xD But thank you for the idea that would be a good added feature to keep in mind!


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## Kellan Meig'h (Mar 2, 2021)

Queen Brie said:


> No touchy! Sounds like a fun game to play. Next challenge: can you undo her bra while wearing those gloves? My boyfriend can barely do that with his regular hands xD But thank you for the idea that would be a good added feature to keep in mind!


Um, that would be a solid No. That would include blouse buttons and pants of any type. In fact, at FC 2010 I had my room card hanging with my Con Badge and the wife unit was busting a gut laughing at me trying to manipulate that card through the card reader in the lock. To be fair, If I needed help with any aspect of my suit, she was right there to help. If it wasn't suit related (want out, gloves off, etc.) or life threatening, she could be quite the task master. We went snack shopping (Safeway Grocery Store) while I was in suit on the way to one of the FC events. She just gave me luggage to carry out to the car while I was doing a last minute check of my suit. I kind of played along until I caught on to her plans. We lived about thirty minutes from San Jose and FC at that time. "Hey look at the horse in the snack aisle!" was a common thing heard that day. Also, a few pics, too.

but I digress.

Velcro would be a substitute that would be better than snaps, since all you have to do is push a finger between the velcro halves to release them.


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## Queen Brie (Mar 2, 2021)

Kellan Meig'h said:


> Um, that would be a solid No. That would include blouse buttons and pants of any type. In fact, at FC 2010 I had my room card hanging with my Con Badge and the wife unit was busting a gut laughing at me trying to manipulate that card through the card reader in the lock. To be fair, If I needed help with any aspect of my suit, she was right there to help. If it wasn't suit related (want out, gloves off, etc.) or life threatening, she could be quite the task master. We went snack shopping (Safeway Grocery Store) while I was in suit on the way to one of the FC events. She just gave me luggage to carry out to the car while I was doing a last minute check of my suit. I kind of played along until I caught on to her plans. We lived about thirty minutes from San Jose and FC at that time. "Hey look at the horse in the snack aisle!" was a common thing heard that day. Also, a few pics, too.
> 
> but I digress.
> 
> Velcro would be a substitute that would be better than snaps, since all you have to do is push a finger between the velcro halves to release them.


Oh my gosh! that sounds like a very memorable experience. But I will definitely consider the velcro/button option. I have difficulty with acrylic nails so I can only imagine using thick gloves with "claws" will be somewhat similar experience. Thankfully my boyfriend already has experience helping me out with stupid stuff so I think he'd be prepared to help if I needed it. 

This may be a stupid question but I see a lot of fursuiters with (what looks like) glove attached to sleeves or it looks like one solid piece; would the buttons/velcro facilitate this same type of look or is that a completely different technique?


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## Kellan Meig'h (Mar 3, 2021)

Queen Brie said:


> Oh my gosh! that sounds like a very memorable experience. But I will definitely consider the velcro/button option. I have difficulty with acrylic nails so I can only imagine using thick gloves with "claws" will be somewhat similar experience. Thankfully my boyfriend already has experience helping me out with stupid stuff so I think he'd be prepared to help if I needed it.
> 
> This may be a stupid question but I see a lot of fursuiters with (what looks like) glove attached to sleeves or it looks like one solid piece; would the buttons/velcro facilitate this same type of look or is that a completely different technique?


The Old Warhorse gloves actually go up above my elbows. The suit "sleeves" make it to my elbows so the join of glove to sleeve seems like it's seamless because everyone is looking for the seam at the wrist. There is a short six inch zipper at the wrist to assist getting into the gloves, they fit that snug.

One suiter that comes to mind is Sparky Can Do. Her character Sabertooth Sparky(?) has the gloves integrated into the suit. I had thought about that style but I had decided on the long glove/short arm system instead.  I also have a set of sleeves that work with black fabric and leather gloves, the feathering falling over my hands for the most part. If you look up a youtube vid "PoX gets into Flurry", you'[ll see Pox putting on the Flurry fursuit and the relationship between Flurry's short sleeves and long gloves. It's a funny video, too, watching PoX going off while being Flurry.


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## Queen Brie (Mar 3, 2021)

Kellan Meig'h said:


> The Old Warhorse gloves actually go up above my elbows. The suit "sleeves" make it to my elbows so the join of glove to sleeve seems like it's seamless because everyone is looking for the seam at the wrist. There is a short six inch zipper at the wrist to assist getting into the gloves, they fit that snug.
> 
> One suiter that comes to mind is Sparky Can Do. Her character Sabertooth Sparky(?) has the gloves integrated into the suit. I had thought about that style but I had decided on the long glove/short arm system instead.  I also have a set of sleeves that work with black fabric and leather gloves, the feathering falling over my hands for the most part. If you look up a youtube vid "PoX gets into Flurry", you'[ll see Pox putting on the Flurry fursuit and the relationship between Flurry's short sleeves and long gloves. It's a funny video, too, watching PoX going off while being Flurry.


That was hilarious! And I can see why the long sleeve is a cool option. I may have to add the velcro option with the long sleeve. have you done that before? Have you found if they stay fairly well? (You can PM me if that would be easier)


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## Kellan Meig'h (Mar 3, 2021)

Queen Brie said:


> That was hilarious! And I can see why the long sleeve is a cool option. I may have to add the velcro option with the long sleeve. have you done that before? Have you found if they stay fairly well? (You can PM me if that would be easier)


The long glove/short sleeve works very well. I have six small glove snaps on each glove/sleeve. They are placed about two inches up inside the sleeve and right at the top of the glove. Once snapped, they haven't came loose once. One thing that might be helping is the fitted wrist, holding the glove from sliding down. I also have some elastic thread woven into the backing of the glove fur to keep it snug to my arm and improve the appearance.

If I were to do the velcro option, I think I would go fully around the to of the glove and sleeve. To attach them, roll the sleeve inside out, pull the glove up, roll the sleeve down onto the glove. I'm sure you could do this by yourself. With the snaps, I can't do the second glove by myself so that's when the wife gives me that devious smile as she snaps the second one in place.


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## Queen Brie (Mar 4, 2021)

Kellan Meig'h said:


> The long glove/short sleeve works very well. I have six small glove snaps on each glove/sleeve. They are placed about two inches up inside the sleeve and right at the top of the glove. Once snapped, they haven't came loose once. One thing that might be helping is the fitted wrist, holding the glove from sliding down. I also have some elastic thread woven into the backing of the glove fur to keep it snug to my arm and improve the appearance.
> 
> If I were to do the velcro option, I think I would go fully around the to of the glove and sleeve. To attach them, roll the sleeve inside out, pull the glove up, roll the sleeve down onto the glove. I'm sure you could do this by yourself. With the snaps, I can't do the second glove by myself so that's when the wife gives me that devious smile as she snaps the second one in place.


Thank you you have been so helpful and I greatly appreciate you answering me with my stupid questions. <3


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## Trevorbluesquirrel (Mar 28, 2021)

Queen Brie said:


> That's actually closer to what I am looking for than what I've found! They don't seem too puffy or difficult to use. I may try to shave the wrist fur down a little bit more but that is very much what I am looking for


Those are actually Mascot Minnie Mouse gloves!


Kellan Meig'h said:


> I would suggest you make the cuffs long, so there is a bit of overlap between your sleeves and gloves. Keeps wrist skin from showing when you don't what that to happen. Or, so what I did and use the small glove snaps to attach my gloves to my sleeves. Just make sure you can unsnap them by yourself. In my case, my hoof-tips on my fingers (three fingered gloves so two and two + thumb) takes away just enough dexterity to undo the snaps. That's why my wife is my handler and I know she will undo them if I ask.
> 
> BTW, I think she likes that small aspect of my fursuit . . .


I've seen you talk about your suits and costumes a lot, but do you have pics posted anywhere to check out!?


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## Kellan Meig'h (Mar 28, 2021)

Trevorbluesquirrel said:


> Those are actually Mascot Minnie Mouse gloves!
> 
> I've seen you talk about your suits and costumes a lot, but do you have pics posted anywhere to check out!?


Sadly, all of the original photos of The Old Warhorse ver 1.0 were lost in a HDD crash. Thank you Western digital. No more WD drives that will do a head crash, damaging the platters. Since I'm almost down to a weight where I could wear my suit again, I might be able to post some new pics of him soon. Still need to drop fifteen pounds, though. Can't close the zipper by a bit through the waist. Darn retirement!

As an aside, I am literally going bugnuts with this sequester in place or masks in public thing. I need to be more active so I can get rid of these extra pounds. I need to weigh no more than one hundred and eighty pounds, currently at just a smidge under two hundred. Yay.


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## Trevorbluesquirrel (Sep 29, 2021)

Oh, that's a shame!

I hope you've made the goal!


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## Kellan Meig'h (Sep 29, 2021)

Trevorbluesquirrel said:


> Oh, that's a shame!
> 
> I hope you've made the goal!


Nope, not there yet. The old Sawbones changed my asthma meds to a new inhaler, Brio Ellipta. As a consequence, say hello to ten new pounds! Yay me! I'm at 210 now and not liking this at all.


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## Trevorbluesquirrel (May 31, 2022)

Kellan Meig'h said:


> Nope, not there yet. The old Sawbones changed my asthma meds to a new inhaler, Brio Ellipta. As a consequence, say hello to ten new pounds! Yay me! I'm at 210 now and not liking this at all.



Hope you're making progress!


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## Kellan Meig'h (May 31, 2022)

Trevorbluesquirrel said:


> Hope you're making progress!


Down to 203 right now. Weather is getting to where I can get outside and garden & tend to the yard so I might get a few more pounds off by summer.


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