I Helped Make a Direwolf... What did you do this weekend?

This is where all Direwolves start out...

So Guavious has been wanting to build a Ghost Direwolf for our Game of Thrones cosplay extravaganza for quite some time. There have been two skeletons in my garage for almost 8 months with no progress and with Norwescon coming up I was getting a little worried. So worried that I actually told the Guild  “I’m not getting stuck with this, we’re not doing it”.  However, this weekend, Guavious was finally home and we surprisingly set to work.  The skeleton is made up of central vacuum pipe, spray foam, and chicken wire. Guavious used two types of spray foam, which I refer to as the hard spray foam and the soft spray foam. The hard spray foam was

Framing the wolves

used on the head, but the softer spray foam is what is currently coating the body and the front of the head. It was much more malleable and easier to sew into.  There are piping connectors for the tail and for the head to use as markers. This was done for two reasons. First, so that we could work on the different pieces separately, and second, so that when we are shipping him, he can be in different pieces which reduce the overall fragile state. 

The Wolves taking up space...

Dejathoris salvaged an amazing white fur coat that when draped over Ghost’s form, looked like it would not only cover, but leave enough room for the legs, head, and tail. When Guavious and I started taking it apart we realized that it was sewn in strips about 12” wide, that there was significant grey striping that was more visible now that it was being taken apart, and that the bulk of the coat was liner and filler. Had we used the remaining material, we would have had to cut Ghost down to about half his size.  We did however, keep the large collar which was a solid white and extra fluffy fur in the front of our minds. 

FUR EVERYWHERE!

Setting out to scavenge the city, we found at Wal-Mart of all places these ridiculous decorative mats. They were shaggy and pure white and shed EVERYWHERE. Perfect! Grabbing three, we went home to see what we could do with them. 

 We left the non-slip matting on the bottom to help with gluing onto Ghost’s frame. This helped keep the fur together and also helped with placement. We started with the legs, cutting strips and gluing them on with Elmer’s Spray Adhesive. Elmer’s stated that the product needed an hour to dry, so after all four legs were glued on; we stopped work for an hour. As the products were drying we realized that all the overlap created gaping and did not secure as snug as we wanted, so we decided to hand-stitched all the seams. SEW ALL THE SEAMS! This turned into a much bigger project than expected.  We then used the larger of the mats and lined up the four legs. We cut “X”’s into where the legs lined up, flipped Ghost onto his back and fed the fabric through until it was flush. We wanted the lower and upper pieces of the body to overlap each other so that we could create a layering effect. Build “muscle” and reduce gaps. So the belly piece actually wraps all the way around Ghost to about mid-frame. This was then spray glued again. Due to the large amount of surface space, it held on pretty good. However the front and back of Ghost’s body where there was overlap was then hand-stitched. This helped bulk up his frame some more. 

Layering on the top piece was the easiest. One large piece of mat draped over, glued and then, sewn for good measure.  When then layered over the front of Ghost the white fur collar from the original jacket. This puffed out his chest and allowed for a nice large overlap for where his head would ultimately go. This entire mane had to be hand sewn on. 

While Guavious was doing that, I was busy breaking my sewing machine needles trying to seal the tail. I had to stop and hand-sew. Later I found out from my mother I could have saved myself some work if I only used “Extra Sharp” sewing needles!!! Drat!

Tail!

Now onto the head. We had JUST ENOUGH of the mats to cover the head, so we glued everything on and took a break for it to dry. By this point, I realized that Aleene’s Spray Adhesive not only dried faster, but worked better overall. So I switched to this.  We headed out to Michaels to look for some inspiration pieces for the ears, eyes, and nose. 

Painting the eyes...

We found black clay for the nose, sheets of craft foam for the ears (to hold their shape), and the amazing decorative lights for the eyes.  We painted the eyes with stained glass paint so that the whole effect would be red, rather than only red. This added to the pop factor. Guavious doesn't like the eyes turned on, I think they looks extra cool with them on. It'll be an ongoing debate. 



 

Worst.Direwolf.EVER

Getting back home, we started placing everything and came to the following conclusion: 
This head totally SUCKS!!!!! He looked goofy and like a white-furred Scoobie Doo. Not the look we’re going for. So Guavious ripped all the fur off the head and started over from scratch. 

After re-looking at our inspiration photos, we decided his snout needed to be more prominent and we needed to work with shorter fur on the face. We ran out to Wal-Mart yet again and picked up another mat (after a bunch of failed experiments with other fleeces and furs). We think we have officially ruined the sku-demand in the city of that particular mat. We laid out the mat and took the clippers we normally use on our RL pups and sheered the fur down.  We then wrapped the fur around the face so that it was more conical than cylindrical. This allowed for tapering at the nose and bulk at the back of the head, helping the shape out a ton!

While Guavious was sheering, I was working on the snout details. I had found a latex Werewolf mask at our local Costume Shoppe and decided to paint it white.  The mask was a full face mask with parts that you would actually adhere to your own teeth for full effect. I cut out the nose and both layers of teeth and set to work. Painting around the nose, and the inside of the mouth, everything else became white. I used Folk Art craft paint in white and only needed one layer (and it dried quick).  I then hand stitched the pieces onto the head with polyfill and cardboard stuffed inside to fill it up and add a structured jawline. 

  Guavious then finished up by stitching on the ears and placing the eyes. There’s still some more work left to be done, like the feet and finishing touches, but for the most part, this Direwolf is done!!