Itchy rats are itchy DDD:

[soc_puppet]

Right, hey, updateyness.

1) I have not yet sung for you the ballad of CuteGirl. This is a shame, as today I finally had an actual sort-of conversation with her. Turns out her name is Erica ♥ Or maybe some other spelling, I didn't ask that far. STILL. I made a frieeeeend \o/

2) My rats, they have lice DD: *weep, weep* This is evidenced by the growing bald patch on Conan's rump, which I had heretofore assumed was due to boredom/barbering and the disturbingly familiar silvery egg casings I've found attached firmly to both his and Doyle's fuzz. I have just put them in a freshly cleaned cage with brand new cloths and a brand new toy and begun spritzing a bird delicer about. Tomorrow I will tackle larger cleaning issues, like their big cage and their previous cloths and hammocks, etc.

2a) In order to distract my precious darlings from their external parasites of doom and woe and possible anemia, I bought them a new toy. It's basically a wire ball that you'd put hay in for rabbits or something and originally had a bell on the bottom, but I took that off (boys're noisy enough as is -_-). Then I put some yogurt-raisins in a tissue, balled it up, crumpled a piece of paper around that, and stuffed the whole thing in the large opening, whereupon I uncrumpled the paper enough to keep it from coming out again easily. Voila, instant rat toy! (Conan was quite frustrated that it was chained in place and he could not drag it away to divest it of its yogurty goodness in a more secluded area.)

3) Anyone have any suggestions for helping cloth keep a bell-shape? I'm planning on making this costume sometime in the near future, and want it to not look horribly crappy. So far I've come up with these options:

* Use a stiff fabric (I'm thinking felt?)
* Use lots of interfacing
* Make my own pseudo-hoop skirt in correct bell shape
* Some combination of the above

Any advice would be very much appreciated and so forth. I'm also taking suggestions re: Do I make it out of dark cloth and paint over it with light or vice-verse?

Edit: Oh yeah.

4) ★Small_Fandoms★
Pimp it. Pimp it good.

Comments

[helendragon.livejournal.com]

Glad you made a friend!!, and sorry your rats have lice but your new toy for them made me lol. I suggest for the costume at least for the head the skeleton/base starting with a box and tape...thats how I made my joey dog suit head...you make balls of masking tape and stack/ball them making the round shape you need then you cover the balls of tape with more tape non sticky face up...I can give more in depth directions if you need. This kind of sculpting produces a structure that is light and strong. It also holds its shape perfectly which is a big problem for these types of costumes. For the bell shape I'd say the best option is getting a hoop skirt or making your own. For the stripes it depends how you wanna go. do you want it to be furry? You can either paint on the stripes with paint pens or acrylic paints or glue/ iron on other colored fabric. I suggest trying a few different technigues on small samples and seeing how you think they look before deciding. http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j163/helendragon/Joey%20in%20the%20Dog%20suit/Picture005-1.jpg

[soc_puppet]

Your costume head looks fantastic, but I don't think I want mine to be quite that stiff or restricted.

I wasn't planning on furry, no, especially since the original the costume is based on was a fish/water thing. But those are some great tips; I'll be sure to put them to use, whatever I do end up doing ♥

[helendragon.livejournal.com]

Its not too stiff...I really recommend using a method like that, its very important for these kind of costumes that they maintain their shape other wise they can look very bad..