I completed my very first fursuit accessory yesterday, something I was unable to do
several years ago when I had enough time and fursuit supplies to build a full fursuit.
All the materials, with the exception of the sewing thread and hot glue, is upcycled. I
got the fake fur from a pillow case I found at a thrift store, the stuffing from a couch I
found on the side of the road, and the strap from some shorts my mother no longer wanted. The
total cost of materials was about five dollars.
Looking back at my older self, its amazing how I'm able to do more with five dollars worth
of used supplies now than five hundred dollars of brand new supplies at the time. This tells
me I've grown a lot since then.
I built it at my local hackerspace, in front of many fellow hackers, in about four hours.
I just glanced at a few references I found on the Internet, and guessed the rest. It turned
out very nice, but unsurprisingly I did discover a few things that I could have done better,
which I have noted for my next tail.
Side view of a gray wolf fursuit tailThe strap of a gray wolf fursuit tail
One of the most notable things I could have done better is tuck in the fake fur around the
strap. I did not account for that when I drew the tail pattern, so I had to just use hot glue
to seal the raw edges. Everything else is mostly what I hoped for.
A couple days ago, I hosted my second furmeet at Coffee Time. The first time there were
a total of 3 attendees, a couple discovered through Meetup where I advertise through the
Seattle-based furmeet group FurLife, and one through Furdar, a mostly unmaintained furmeet
calender from Europe. The latest furmeet got several more, a total of 8 attendees. This
was accomplished by advertising at another furmeet I attended, hosted by Cascadia Furs at
the Portland Pride, and I was told by one of these furries that they shared it to a couple
furry Telegram groups it was in.
I don't have a Telegram account for ethical reasons, which certainly makes it hard to
reach the large amount of local furries who use nothing but Telegram for communication, but
this past furmeet has showed me that I don't need one to host a successful furmeet because
the few furries I am able to communicate in person can share it there on my behalf.
We had a nice time talking and exploring the den in the back of the coffee shop, where I
took a photograph of two fursuiters that attended.
Fursuiters sitting on a couch at Coffee Time
I also met a furry who was registration staff at Furlandia, a furry convention in Portland, Oregon. It would have been a nice
contact to have at the last convention, which I could not attend due to my failure to meet the requirement
of being able to present a state-issued ID at registration.
