Whats the best way to make cat ears?

koneko · Post by **koneko** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 9:50 am

I'm making a Mew Ichigo costume and I need some cat ears, but I don't know the best way to make them. Does anyone have some advice?

Reference picture.

Moon-chan · Post by **Moon-chan** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 6:40 pm

I'm here to serve! Here's what I told someone on cosplay.com

You'll need your fabric, glue (I use hot glue) two barrettes and craft wire (mine's about a millimetre thick, you can probably pick it up at a craft store.)

1. Cut out your fabric for the ears, it should be fairly triangle shaped, but the base should be much broader then the other two sides.

2. Either glue or sew the two sides of each ear (the front to the back) together and flip them right-side out.

3. Cut a piece of wire for each ear the length of the base of the ear. Fold the fringe at the bottom of the ears inside (you might want to hold it with a pin) and then carefully glue the wire JUST inside the base. You want to be careful that the glue doesn't show much, because there's nothing to hide it other then your hair (shouldn't be too much of a problem though...)

4. Once the glue's dried, glue the center of the base of the ears to hair clips (I had the snappy ones in plain black, if they're going to show up in your hair, paint the clips black first with nail polish or something). It's best to push a bit of fabric down onto the clips so they has a good base to sit on, that way they won't flip around much.

After that they're done and you can curve them to look like real cat ears because of the wire! ^___^

Oh, but I recommend making sure they can grip a good amount of hair, mine tended to slip on one side (I part my hair on the left, not down the middle).

And I used lining and fleece to make mine. Feel free to ask questions.

koneko · Post by **koneko** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 6:40 am

Thanks for all the help! About how big should I cut the fabric? I'm worried the hair clips won't be strong enough to hold them.

mindtailor · Post by **mindtailor** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 9:58 am

If you use hot glue, and the metal hair clips like these, you should be fine with any size ears you need.

I also found that if you spread hot glue (quickly!) inside the ear after you've sewn it and turned it right-side-out, you can shape it with your hands and mold it into a flatter (as in the two sides don't puff away from each other), curved shape like a real cat's ear. It'll also be stiffer in case you squash one of them, and they won't flop over on your head.