Making Helena

February 7, 2026

Figured I'd talk about this here so I could go more in-depth on how exactly I made my suit, which I actually did last month. So I was in Nashville for a concert in September (was seeing Weird Al specifically, show was great too), and I visited the mall by the Opry Mills which I usually do whenever I'm up there (which turned out to be the last time I was up there, I don't live in TN anymore thankfully), that was when Spirit Halloween was popping up, but I didn't visit there, I went to Spencers and saw that they had some fursuit stuff, specifically some hand and feet paws, didn't see any heads though iirc. But after getting home and going to the mall in Clarksville, I visited the Spencers in there and I saw a full on fursuit head on display for $60, since Spirit and Spencers are owned by the same company. I had wanted a proper fursuit head for a LONG time, when I went to FWA in 2022 I didn't have a fursuit, I had one of those wolf masks and a wig and that was it, still did the job but wasn't great, especially compared to having a proper suit. So in October I decided to pick one up after I got paid, since I had already gone out that day to the mall and some other places. Of course I had shown it off to people (while telling them it was from Spirit Halloween), though a common thing people said was that I should try and spruce it up some, like shaving it, taking fabric marker to it, adding felt to it, etc. etc. I had initially just planned to wear it as-is but I decided to start brainstorming some ideas for what I could do with it, from what other people had said I should do with it.

Obviously, I had decided on picking an emo hair style for her, nothing crazy I've seen people do, but just something relatively simple but could still get the point across. Helps that I found this tutorial which went into detail on how to do hair for fursuits. So after moving back home in December, I went to Michael's to get fur for it, I could only find black craft fur but bought basically all they had along with buying pink fur off Etsy. That alongside buying what I needed to craft stuff (i.e. pins and a sewing needle, thread, etc.) So after waiting for the fur to arrive, I started working on making hair for it. But I ran into an issue where I just sorta... didn't have enough black fur to do all the hair for it, so I had to put it on hold until I went back to Michael's later that week. But after getting it, I started getting to work, honestly wasn't THAT hard sewing and stitching all the fur together, especially after getting into a groove doing it, which was helped by me having something to watch/listen to the whole time. I don't have a proper like, stand or desk to do it on so I legit had to use a mic stand, but it did the job regardless.

After a few hours, it was done, the hair was done, but didn't wear the suit yet as I decided to wait till friday (bc fursuit friday and all that), but brushing the hair caused some of the stitches to fall apart, so had to redo them and make them tighter, which again, wasn't too hard but a bit annoying having to redo the stitches, but at least did it to where the hair would stay together if I brush it instead of just falling apart.

Admittedly haven't worn it much since January (since I've been busy with school and needing to get a job and all), but I plan on going to FWA this year with me being a Georgia resident and all (I don't live in Atlanta though, it's like a 2-3 hour drive away from where I am), so obviously plan on going as her, helps that I'm going with a friend this time instead of alone. Only thing is that I can't wear my glasses when in suit so my vision is made even worse and that it's hot as hell inside the suit, but that's just kind of how fursuits are anyways.