#therian tutorial

YOU WILL NEED

Scissors

sewing needle and thread

a strip of fur (i’m using scrap fur from a coat hood and will show how to use that), twice as wide as you want the tail and as long as you want the tail, plus at least 5 inches for doubling it over if you’re making a coyote/wolf tail- for cat tails you won’t need this, for fox tails you will need it twice as long as you want the tail. Ex.- mine was a 5 inch wide, 26 inch fur strip. my tail ended up being 3 inches thick not including the length of the hair and 19 inches long.

optional- seam ripper, they can make it easier but you can just use scissors if you don’t have one

STEP ONE (if using a hood)

cut the fur off of the hood- make sure not to cut any of the actual fur! Leave some of the fabric from the hood on when making the first cut to make sure you don’t cut the fur fabric, or you won’t have enough fur for the tail. Cut close to the fur, but not the fur fabric. Then, cut about half an inch off each end of the fur, where the thick seams are- this is to separate the fur fabric from the hood fabric. now you will be able to remove the fabric of the hood- you can probably just pull them apart but you may have to cut the seams. 

make sure not to cut the fur strands or you’ll have weird square cut fur on the tail! 

STEP TWO 

-skip to under picture if making a cat tail or one you don’t have to fold widthwise-

now that you have your fur, mark where you want the bottom of your tail to be- so if you want your tail to be 20 inches long completed and you have to fold the fur halfway up to be thicker at the end than the top (wolf and coyote tails are shaped like that) Then mark at 20 inches. this should leave 10 inches to be folded. Now, to make your tail pointed you will need to cut it into shape. To do this, draw two triangles like so-  

And cut them off. when folded, the tip of the tail should look something like this-

If you’re making a cat tail, fold the fabric lengthwise and cut the corners off! you do not have to fold it horizontally, only vertically. 

STEP THREE- skip if making cat tail

Now you can start sewing! you will want the fur sides in, the fabric side out to sew. it doesn’t have to be sewn well, you won’t see it from the outside at all. Starting from the tip of the tail, use a basic straight stitch, which looks like this-

and is done just by sticking the needle through both layers from one side to the other in a pleated pattern and then pulling the thread through. the fabric should be flat after you pull it through, or you pulled the thread too tight. You can just pull the fabric flat usually, if you have enough thread to go through all the fabric. Make sure you leave about 1/8 inch of the edge of the fabric, or if it frays your sewing can come undone.

continue sewing until you get about 2 inches from the edge of the folded piece, here- 

And cut the corners off, so it’s triangular. sew only the one side of the triangle to the side you’re sewing. Now end the stitch, by going through only the top layer of fabric with the needle, pulling the thread only halfway through, and then putting the needle through the thread loop. Then pull it tight. Do this two or three times, then cut the thread. Leave about half an inch of thread on the knot, so if it comes loose it doesn’t completely undo. 

repeat on the other side, getting all the way to the end of the folded fabric. If you made a fox tail, then you’re done until Step five because the whole tail is folded like that, there is no skinny part.. 

STEP FOUR

For the skinny part of the tail, or for the whole tail if making a cat tail, fold the rest of the tail horizontally- 

and sew up to the top. Make sure to leave an opening of about 2 inches to flip it right side out! 

My cat decided to join me here, so he’s become part of the background XD

STEP FIVE

Flip right side out/ fur side out!

For realistic movement, you DO NOT want to stuff it with anything. Real tails just have a little piece of leather in the center, nothing else-

If you want it to be poseable, you can put wire in the middle. You’ll want to add a dab of hot glue to the ends of the wire so it stays put. The top of the tail will still be open, you will want to sew it closed by folding the very edge of the fabric in and sewing it like that, so you don’t see the edge of the fabric-

sew it shut using that method every stitch. Now you can sew any type of fastener or clip to it to attach it to you. And it’s done!