The Dragon's Cave - For the upcoming Convention

For those of you who may not know, I'm heading up to Further Confusion (FurCon) in San Jose next week. This will be my first furry convention, and I'm really excited about it. It will be a 5-day event, with tons of different things going on--art, comics, writing, mix & mingle, food, gaming, dances, parades, etc. From what I hear, this is the biggest furry convention in the U.S., and there will be plenty of opportunities to meet new friends there.

I've got a hotel room booked about 1/3 mile away from the convention center, so I'll get a chance to do some good walking back & forth without having to walk too far. Though I plan to drive up to the con, I don't plan to drive my car around locally for con events (waste of gas, nowhere to park, etc.). I've got three roommates whom I've never met except online, and I'm even going to pick up another con-goer in Anaheim so we can split the cost of gas on the way up/back.

Some people there at the con are going to bring fur suits (i.e. dress up like their favorite animal characters). In the spirit of the event, I've decided to make a dragon tail for myself that I can wear to the con.

It has been YEARS since I've sewn anything at all. Probably the last time I seriously sewed something was back in my junior year of high school when I made a black wizard's robe for myself so I could dress up as Raistlin Majere for Halloween.

Last saturday, I went and bought a yard of deep green material, a half-yard of bright yellow (for the tail spines), and a quarter-yard of denim (to make loops so I can attach it to a belt). I have no pattern to use, so I sat down and started doodling to come up with plans of what I wanted it to look like. I decided that I want it to be between 2.5 and 3 feet long, with 8 tail spines running along the top center of the tail. Originally, I thought to make all of the tail spines the same size, but Kimberly pointed out that they should probably become progressively smaller as the tail tapers out toward the end.

Once I came up with a design that I liked, the geek in me started calculating the exact size for each tail spine. I drew up a 3-inch by 3-inch pattern for the largest, then scanned it into Photoshop so I could mess around with the size and make the patters for the others. I realized, to my dismay, that what you see on the screen in Photoshop and what comes out on the printer aren't necessarily the same thing! I discovered that I had to set the resolution to 250 pixels per inch in order to make it print out the same size that I had originally drawn it.

Once I had printed out patterns for each of the 8 spines, I set to work cutting the material for the first one. I laid out the yellow material folded over so I could cut two versions from the same pattern. Once that was done, I ran it through Kimberly's sewing machine to stitch the two sides together (leaving the bottom open so I could stuff it with padding).

On my first attempt, it turned out that I didn't leave enough material around the edges to make a proper seam, so I ended up with large holes in between some of the stitches. On my second attempt, I realized too late that I had laid the two material pieces together right-side out, so after sewing it and turning it inside-out, the wrong side of the material was on the outside of the spine. SIGH. I took Kimberly's picker and carefully picked out every stitch so I could set the pieces correctly and re-sew it.

I remember now how much skill it takes to really do a good job at sewing.

Now that I've made my mistakes and gone somewhat up the learning curve, this morning turned out much better. I was able to get 6 out of the 8 spines completed, leaving the two smallest ones yet undone. I should be able to get those finished either tonight or tomorrow, and then I can start on the main body of the tail. I'll post updates as work progresses.