# Tail design?



## FancySkunk (Sep 27, 2010)

Well, this may be a bit odd, but I'm looking for a bit of feedback on a design for a tail. I wanted the tail to look a little bit more true to nature than what you'd usually see, and I came up with this mock-up: http://i53.tinypic.com/da441.jpg

I have very little sewing experience, so I'd like to default to the experience of those who have more than 10 weeks of a sewing class in middle school under their belt. Is this design, or something in the same vein, as I recognize that the fringe points are probably a bit to extreme here, something that's feasible? Would I run into too much of an issue trying to stuff the fringes for this to be worth it? Do you just think it would turn out terrible?

I'm still in the beginning stages of planning this (don't even have my material yet), so now would be a good time to tell me this won't work.


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## Urbanwolf (Sep 27, 2010)

with long fur fringe points aren't necessary. also if you want it to stand up you might need a wire or foam to help you.  also you'd get a very very strange looking tail if you cut it out with those giant spikey fringes


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## FancySkunk (Sep 27, 2010)

Urbanwolf said:


> with long fur fringe points aren't necessary. also if you want it to stand up you might need a wire or foam to help you.  also you'd get a very very strange looking tail if you cut it out with those giant spikey fringes


It's not meant to stand up. That was just the best way for me to get a picture.

If I toned the fringes down, do you think it would come out alright? I'm really not sure what will be available in terms of fur. If I can only get short fur, then I'd be back to being forced into an unrealistic smooth tail design.


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## Fay V (Sep 27, 2010)

The spikes would be rather awkward, and I think lack of skill would make it worse, no offense, it's just hard to deal with finicky things like that. 

If you want a natural looking tail you need to find some long pile fur. the internet is your best friend here. Don't go for fringes, they look cartoony not natural or realistic. If you want a nice looking skunk tail, think of how a skunk tail is constructed in anatomy. 

You start with the tail bones, then musculature around that, then fur. Skunks don't have fringes. 

Here is a baby. See how the fur hasn't really grown out on the tail. try to imitate that shape.
Now this is a fairly neatly furred tail. It is mostly uniform, the strands of long pile separating out a bit. 
This tail is the closest to having fringes. But notice that it's just long strands of fur stuck together. they occur randomly along the cylinder shape of the tail. Very different from side fringes. The way you can make this happen with fur is, wash the fur and let it dry without brushing it (just make sure the pile is pointed down) the fur will naturally dry in clumps.

As for what fur to use, look for shag or long pile fur. I'd say something about 3" would do. Mendel's has some nice shag fur the nap varies between 2" to 3 5/8" so you get that realistic variation such as in real fur. Get some swatches and have a look.


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## Trpdwarf (Sep 27, 2010)

You are better off going without the whole "Fringe" thing. That said what I would suggest is redoing your pattern so it's regular lines where the fringe is. If you can only find "Short pile" material in your area than I would suggest if it is cheap, get it and use it to do a basic first attempt at the tail so you can get an idea of how the sewing goes. Once you are comfortably able to use cheap material to do a decent protoype, save up so you can spring for better material even if you have to order it.

If you go to: http://www.mendels.com/fur2.shtml the punky muppet would be a good material to try to get and you can order it half yards.
EDIT: IF you want to go for realism though I suggest saving up a good amount of money to spring for the best material which would be the black and white "Fox" fur that you'll see if you scroll down. That stuff will when you sew the tail up well, make for a close grab at realism.

Also rather than just stuffing the tail regular you might invest in getting a roll of upholstry foam, and actually use your pattern as a guide to cut out a foam insert. That's how I got the paddle shape for: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3717318/ , it will make for a much more light tail and hold better to a good shape versus straight up stuffing it.


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## FancySkunk (Sep 27, 2010)

Fay V said:


> The spikes would be rather awkward, and I think lack of skill would make it worse, no offense, it's just hard to deal with finicky things like that.
> 
> If you want a natural looking tail you need to find some long pile fur. the internet is your best friend here. Don't go for fringes, they look cartoony not natural or realistic. If you want a nice looking skunk tail, think of how a skunk tail is constructed in anatomy.
> 
> ...


I take absolutely no offense. I may wind up asking someone else to sew this for me because I haven't used a sewing machine in a long while, and I wasn't particularly great when I did use one.

That third picture you linked is about what I was going for, with the tail fur kind of being all over the place. I know I did a fairly poor job attempting that, but yeah.

I'll see about finding some long pile fur. I'm honestly not sure if there's even a fabric store near me anymore (there was one really close by but it closed down). I'm not sure if I'll be able to order online, so I'll be a bit stuck with what I can get.




Trpdwarf said:


> You are better off going without the whole "Fringe" thing. That said what I would suggest is redoing your pattern so it's regular lines where the fringe is. If you can only find "Short pile" material in your area than I would suggest if it is cheap, get it and use it to do a basic first attempt at the tail so you can get an idea of how the sewing goes. Once you are comfortably able to use cheap material to do a decent protoype, save up so you can spring for better material even if you have to order it.
> 
> If you go to: http://www.mendels.com/fur2.shtml the punky muppet would be a good material to try to get and you can order it half yards.
> EDIT: IF you want to go for realism though I suggest saving up a good amount of money to spring for the best material which would be the black and white "Fox" fur that you'll see if you scroll down. That stuff will when you sew the tail up well, make for a close grab at realism.
> ...


Yeah, I'll definitely switch over to a smother design. This would be why I asked on here before doing anything beyond a pattern. I had a concept, but didn't know if could actually be applied. I'll likely get whatever I can and try to get something done (if I can only get expensive material, I can always practice with some random fabric like a bedsheet, I guess).

I've been on that site in my search for fur material, so I'll definitely keep that in mind.

I hadn't considered foam, but seeing your otter tail, I'm going to have to, because the results look great (would probably help keep the weight down too).


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## Urbanwolf (Sep 27, 2010)

FancySkunk said:


> I take absolutely no offense. I may wind up asking someone else to sew this for me because I haven't used a sewing machine in a long while, and I wasn't particularly great when I did use one.
> 
> That third picture you linked is about what I was going for, with the tail fur kind of being all over the place. I know I did a fairly poor job attempting that, but yeah.
> 
> ...


 
sometimes machines can get jammed up with fur i've heard. Sewing by hand is also a good choice. May take longer but you'll get it done. Also cheap fabric from IKEA or just bedsheets like you said are good to practice but they won't show how the fur will look or fluff it up


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## Deo (Sep 27, 2010)

the fringe seams will probably twist and or look like death spikes or otherwise be awkward and completely ridiculously unrealistic. 
Check this site http://www.nftech.com/clearance.php they post their clearance fur there and that can be up to 14 inches long in pile if you're trying to get that shaggy look. Drawback is it's sold by the square foot, so make a mock up of your tail with scrap fabric and carefully measure out how much you'll need so you don't order toomuch extra. Or buy MM Fox from White wolf, it's a nice 3 inch pile: http://whitewolf.denofwolves.com/fur.html


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## Trpdwarf (Sep 27, 2010)

Urbanwolf said:


> sometimes machines can get jammed up with fur i've heard. Sewing by hand is also a good choice. May take longer but you'll get it done. Also cheap fabric from IKEA or just bedsheets like you said are good to practice but they won't show how the fur will look or fluff it up


 
I highly second this. People often look shocked when we say this but Zeke and I hand sow everything. The half suit on the dalmatian? Our tails, sleeves, the fur part of heads, the fur part of foot paws...everything is sewn by hand. It's why you don't see seams unless you are looking at something made with short pile material. It doesn't take that long for things like tails. You start, get going, and come back to it when you can.

If you don't have a machine it doesn't mean you can't make a tail or even a suit.


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## Fay V (Sep 27, 2010)

Trpdwarf said:


> I highly second this. People often look shocked when we say this but Zeke and I hand sow everything. The half suit on the dalmatian? Our tails, sleeves, the fur part of heads, the fur part of foot paws...everything is sewn by hand. It's why you don't see seams unless you are looking at something made with short pile material. It doesn't take that long for things like tails. You start, get going, and come back to it when you can.
> 
> If you don't have a machine it doesn't mean you can't make a tail or even a suit.


 
it's not as hard as people seem to think. I hand sewed my entire fay suit except the head. It took like 2 hours for the tail and a a few days of on and off work for the body suit.

And the kicker is I had no idea how to sew before that.


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## FancySkunk (Sep 28, 2010)

I'm not sure about hand sewing. I've done some hand sewing fairly recently (within the last couple years), and I have a hard time keeping my stitching straight. So that's something I'd definitely have to practice



Deovacuus said:


> Or buy MM Fox from White wolf, it's a nice 3 inch pile: [URL]http://whitewolf.denofwolves.com/fur.html[/URL]


That fur looks amazing. I think that may be what I go with if I can get some online currency (I really need to set up a checking account so I can just use my debit card like a normal person). $36 for a yard of black and a half yard of white seems pretty reasonable. And there will definitely be scraps enough for a small side project. Though... I'm not sure if a half yard is 3' x 30" or 1.5' x 60". I'd have to know that and think about how I'd need the stripes to go before finalizing anything.

And I really hate to keep bugging you guys, but how exactly would I do the stripes? Just cut out the area for the white from the black fabric (leaving a little extra room) and sewing it on flat?


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## Deo (Sep 28, 2010)

FancySkunk said:


> That fur looks amazing. I think that may be what I go with if I can get some online currency (I really need to set up a checking account so I can just use my debit card like a normal person). $36 for a yard of black and a half yard of white seems pretty reasonable. And there will definitely be scraps enough for a small side project. Though... I'm not sure if a half yard is 3' x 30" or 1.5' x 60". I'd have to know that and think about how I'd need the stripes to go before finalizing anything.
> 
> And I really hate to keep bugging you guys, but how exactly would I do the stripes? Just cut out the area for the white from the black fabric (leaving a little extra room) and sewing it on flat?


 

You would sew the stripes together with the whole thing.  And depending on how long this tail is, you may want a yard of white and a yard of black to cut down on seams and sewing. Otherwise the length of the tail would mean you would have to section it off and sew pieces together to get one flat length.


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## FancySkunk (Sep 28, 2010)

Ah, so don't cut anything then? I was thinking that might just look odd because it would make the white bulge out.

Hm... if it's 1.5ft x 60inches, then I'm probably going to have to do the left stripe and the right one as separate pieces. I'll have to see how my pattern winds up, but I think I could get both sides onto a half yard if I lay them in opposite directions.


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## Deo (Sep 28, 2010)

FancySkunk said:


> Ah, so don't cut anything then?


No, cut the pieces and sew them together.



FancySkunk said:


> Hm... if it's 1.5ft x 60inches, then I'm probably going to have to do the left stripe and the right one as separate pieces. I'll have to see how my pattern winds up, but I think I could get both sides onto a half yard if I lay them in opposite directions.


 
Look how the fur flows on a half a yard of fabric. Now look how a skunk tail's fur flows. Now look at the picture again on how fur flows. THINK.
The fur will flow sideways if you do it the way you are talking about and it will look ridiculous.








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## FancySkunk (Sep 28, 2010)

Deovacuus said:


> Look how the fur lows. Now look how a skunk  tail's fur flows. Now look at the picture again on how fur flows. THINK.  The fur will flow sideways if you do it the way you are talking about  and it will look ridiculous.


Gah, that was a stupid error on my  part.

So yeah, it does look like I'd need a full yard of white to avoid having a seam right in the middle of the stripes.


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