How to make a tail props for a

Cosplay?By: Louise Anne Santos BBTE-IT III-2N

Chapter 1: Cosplaying

- Getting ready for a cosplay competition?

- Preparing for your costume but

having a hard time crafting your props?- Here’s a quick and easy guide on how to make a tail props ^_^

First, What is Cosplay?• Originated from Japan; The

practice of dressing up as a character from a movie, book, or video game, especially one from the Japanese genres of manga and anime.

So let’s say the you chose Ahri, a nine-tailed-fox online game character to cosplay on upcoming cosplay competition.

Who’s Ahri??

Popstar Ahri

Ahri is a nine-tailed-fox character from a game League of Legends.

With her strong ability power, many gamers love choosing her as a

champion in the said game.And because of her cute features, there are also a lot of cosplayers

choosing her to cosplay.

Ahri Cosplayer Samples

The Costume

The Tail

Let’s say that your costume

were done and ready, But still you have no tail

props

Chapter 2: How to make the Ahri tail

part 1.

The materials used to make the tails as follow:

* Fur (of your choice) * Timber (base and holds tails together) * Timber pole (hold tails and attaches to timber) * Pool noodles (used as the base to keep the tails straight) * Zip ties * Polly fill (some type of light weight stuffing will do) * Belt/clip in bag straps (straps around waist for more support)* Suspenders (these will be used for carrying your tails as a backpack)

TailsWhen making the tails you’d want them to be of a decent size compared to your own body. This includes the width and height.

1) Make a pattern. I used a similar shape as shown in the diagram (fig.A). Basically just cut out two pieces for each tail and sew them together leaving the bottom open. Since you want these tails to fan out at different heights, you’ll want to consider the size of each individual tail, my set up is shown in below in fig. B.(Note: tails of the same colour are of the same height and size.)

2) To hold the tails up, i used pool noodles as they are fairly light, cheap, and are able to retain the tail's form.Using purely just stuffing will really weigh you down. I have heard others use PVC pipes, small blown balloons etc, but of course you can try other materials if you please.

1 pool noodle can be made into 1-2 tails depending on your height and size of your tails. They can be easily shortened with a knife. But it is important that the timber pole can fit INSIDE of the pool noodle. It should have a tight, secure, fit.

When placing the fur over the pool noodles there may still be some empty spaces that need to filled, in which the poly fill comes in. You don’t want to stuff too much to add weight, nor do you want to make them appear bulky, but just stuffing enough so they don't look completely empty.

3) The wood has been shaped as shown in the fig.C (purple) since the tails are laid out in a fan shape. It gives enough allowance for the tails to fan out and enough support for your back. The poles should be cut (as shown in fig.D) and hammered down into the timber (fig.E). It's important to take into consideration the width of the pool noodles. During this stage it is crucial to measure everything out before cutting or hammering anything.

Chapter 3: How to make the Ahri tail

part 2.

Attaching TailsThe tails aka pool noodles should now be

inserted into the wooden poles, then secured with zip ties so that the fur stays

securely on the the noodles.

1) The tails may look too spaced out and can potentially drag on weight on the sides. To keep them together and less flimsy i just hand sewn them in the following places (fig.f).

Attaching straps and beltsThis part is pretty dodgy as i only thought about it the day before the con, i’m sure you can replace other methods for this, using the following is just probably good for opening up ideas.

Originally i wanted to use some either nude or see-through material for the straps, but i could only use what i had around the house since the con was the next day <_<. I used some old suspenders as the ‘back-pack’ straps and drilled them into the timber. I also used another clip-on-belt into the timber so the tails could also be strapped onto my stomach to lessen the weight off my back and give more support. The clip-on part was intentionally put on the side so it wouldn't stick out from underneath of the costume.

Finish Product

^_^

By now you should be pretty done with everything. The front of the tails are uneven, i put some Styrofoam just to even it out and make it more comfortable, you can try other things just to even this out. The front and back just needs to be hot glued with fur and you’re done :D!

These tails are honestly not heavy and fairly light weight, i had no pains carrying these on my back for the whole day. But Getting around busy cons is a problem since these are quite large.Just beware of wind, since you are like a human kite @@.

Hopefully this has helped you guys in some way and given you some ideas, if you have any questions please feel free to ask :D!