doublexgeeks

Ok, I posted last week the idea I had for my halloween costume. Now we get into how easy costuming can be!

After too many comments of “your ****in morbid” I decided to forgo the head. No worries, it was gonna be tedious to do anyway. I did decide to stick to the blue fur tho.

Now, colored fur is no longer in style, and finding anything suitable was impossible. So, I got some white fur with the intent to dye it.

What I used so far:
1.5m of fake fur
Scissors
A bucket
A BBQ flipper (stainless steel)
ManicPanic hair dye (Aftermidnight Blue and Shocking Blue)
Gloves
Vacuum
Sharpie
Cat

The plan:
The biggest project is the boot covers. I’m planning on having it loose, and held in place using elastics. I also plan to make a bag (you need to have somewhere to put all your stuff if you’re going out in costume!) and some more odds and ends. The only real planned part is a shoulder piece, and some bits to tie on to myself. I’m also planning on making a tie around my stomach using a blue sheer fabric I have left over, a bow and arrow, but I’ll post that in the next part

The cat (Nemo) wanted to help the whole time and is featured in a few of my images. I will get into his “help” further later.

Here’s the fabric stretched out over my bed. It cost me about $18 for all that! I was impressed, yay for memberships to fabricville. Also featured is the ever helpful Nemo, and the only pair of scissors that apparently haven’t run away.

It’s white with some black as you can see, and the fur is about an inch or so long. It is actually quite soft!

Given the nature of the fabric I’m not being too careful with the exact sizes. I traced around the boots I’m planning on wearing with my costume, which will hold the cover up. They look hard on the feet, but they’re more comfortable than my sneakers, and almost guarantee that I won’t twist my ankle. Bonus!

You can see how it cut out. The tip of the boot will likely need to be trimmed but I’ll worry about that later. BUT you also can see a small issue with this fabric.

I didn’t realize you need to part the fur before you cut, and even when I did start doing that you end up with a LOT of loose fur.

Side-note: My vacuum was clogged beyond clogged when I got it out. There was a bread tag stuck in the hose! It took me almost half an hour to get it going again. As another note, I emptied the vacuum before I started this.

I vacuumed around the edges of all the cuts and that kept the mess down a LOT

not much to say, this is what will be the shoulder piece.

For the bag it’s going to be a simple fold over bag on a chain. The edges of the fabric don’t need much finishing, so I’m not worried about how it will fit.

This is the size it will be. Big enough for cell phone, make up, cards, etc.

And here you can see why I needed to vacuum the whole time! It was packed solid in there! Could have been quite the mess.

Not shown are a lot of the odds and ends of cut out. Mostly strips of fabric just incase I wanted them. If I need more I’ll use it white and mix and match. I also have brown fur left over from a sporran I made a friend a few years ago. Next, onto making it blue!

Here are the supplies! So, why did I use the ManicPanic hair dye? First off, I have my hair dyed with it, and love the color. Second, I wanted it to dye slowly so I could be more specific with the color. I also foresaw this being a messy process (and it was), and Rit dye stains horribly if you aren’t careful. I wasn’t sure how much the fur could stand up to either, and since I can keep the ManicPanic in my hair overnight with no issues, I figured it was safe!

I added the dye to the bucket first, one tablespoon of each abouts (maybe a bit more, but it wasn’t a huge amount). I then added hot water as shown, stirring with my gloved hand (if it does stain your hand though, oxy pads takes ManicPanic off skin instantly).

To stir up the bucket once it was full, and to mix the fabric in well, I actually used a BBQ flipper. As you can see in the picture the dye doesn’t take it it at all! I made sure each piece was soaked as I added them.

And here you see why my cat now has a blue paw. He’s far too interested in this bucket.

This is the color after being in the dye for about 12 hours. It looks ok in the picture, but it’s still quite white in places. It’s still soaking at the moment!

I’m hoping that it will be done tomorrow. If not I will pour the old water off and start again with fresh dye-water. I’m hoping to get the sewing done this week, once the fabric drys! More pictures to come :)

If you have any questions about how I did anything, or advice for your own projects, just let me know!

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