You may be wondering, why Kitty Up over another maker? What's it look like "under the hood?" Well, let us give you a brief overview of what makes our work stand out from the crowd!
Heads
Our heads are built out of a soft, squishy foam and carved just right to match your character and species. They are fully lined inside, using a smooth broadcloth for the head, soft minky for the mouth, and a smooth material for the eye sockets.
Our heads are almost entirely sewn, with the fur being completely sewn. We try to minimize the use of glue if possible for a soft, professional finish. The lining is further sewn down to make wear easy peasy. On top of that, almost all of our heads are glasses friendly!
Eyes are carefully installed to keep fur out of your vision, and the eyes backed black for the easiest time seeing out. They are made via dye sublimation, a method that makes the color of the eye mesh permanent. A fully hollowed muzzle and the suit built to sit off your face allows for good airflow and comfort on top of this.
Finally, if you so choose a fan, this is velcro'ed in for easy washing and storage. The pack sits in a pocket in the neck.
Necks are left unlined for ease of maintenance and to keep the area lightweight and breathable.
Handpaws
A proper set of handpaws is a must have for any fursuit! Our handpaws use a selection of patterns provided by other makers, such as Freakhound Studios and Kloofsuits, or a custom pattern can be drafted up as needed.
Handpaws have their pawpads appliqued for a perfect shape, and the cuffs biased to keep the edges nice and clean. The handpaws use finger pillows for padding, and are unlined for less bulk and ease of repair. If requested, we can also do lining or no padding at all.
We use quality cottons for lining and bias, as they're lightweight, breathable, and dry fast. Plus, they're non stretch so there's no fiddling to get them on.
Plush claws are not only attached on the paw seam, but further ladder stitched down for the best look and extra strength possible. 3D printed claws and resin claws are securely glued in with rubber cement to insure the strongest bond.
Silicone pawpads are sewn in place for the best fit.
Feetpaws
When it comes to feetpaws, we do our best to make them as convenient, comfortable, and cute as possible!
Clients supply the shoe of their choice, ensuring a comfortable, perfect fit every time.
They are lined with a quality broadcloth and biased with cotton for a clean finish and a sleek interior, making for a comfortable, lightweight, and easy to care for footpaw.
The bottoms have two choices for their outdoor sole. A thick, high density foam mat with laminate rubber bottoms allows for fursuiters to strut their stuff with lower risks of slips and increased longevity.
Indoor bottoms are fur with the pawpads appliqued on top in the client's choice of material, which usually matches the handpaws' pawpad material.
Tails
Tails are an important part of most characters, and we don't skimp out here!
By default our tails are made to be worn on a belt. Using nylon webbing for loops, attached to a sturdy EVA foam base, this helps keep your tail on tight to your body and gives it some extra wag with its polyfil interior.
We also do zip on tails for those who want extra support for a large tail, or a seamless look on their bodysuit We can also add a zipper to an attached tail to destuff it for cleaning, for truly the most seamless look.
Floor dragging tails are also an option for those with extra long tails and want something more floppy.
Bodysuits
Our bodysuits are built to be as convenient and comfortable as possible.
With set in sleeve styles, arms have a nice fit along your body without being overly tight or too loose. The addition of gussets into the armpit allows for wide range of motion while wearing. The wrists and ankles are left a little baggy to make it easy to slip the wrist of handpaws and the ankle of feetpaws underneath.
Zippers are placed on the front or somewhat to the side, whichever gives it the most invisibility yet ease of access. Zippers can be placed onthe back if requested. They are lined with bias tape to help keep fur from the zip, and use large toothed sport clothing zippers for a robust and durable zip.
The neck is biased with a smooth cotton, soft minky, or your choice of fabric if you so choose.
For belt loop tails, a small tail hole with the edges hemmed using a strong hot glue help to keep things tidy and from stretching with wear.
Bodies are sewn with a sturdy straight stitch, with a zig zag stitch added to high wear areas such as the armpit, butt, and crotch for extra strength. Why not serge the seams? While serged seams look great, they make alterations and repairs a nightmare, and tend to be so strong the fur backing itself fails instead of the seam, making for a particularly difficult repair.
For our padded suits, we are still experimenting! This will be updated soon.
Armsleeves
Armsleeves are a simple affair, yet handled as clean and professional as possible.
Since these sleeves are meant to be worn with a long sleeve undershirt, such as UnderArmor HeatGear, they are unlined to keep as few layers and bulk off as possible. Despite this, they feature a clean biased edge at the shoulder and a sturdy elastic strap connecting the sleeves.
This strap is worn across the back, and does a fine job keeping the sleeves up and in place for hours of romping around. Their simplicity makes cleaning and maintenance easy as can be, and can be easily rolled up for storage and travel.
Backpack Wings
Despite the name, these aren't built on a backpack, but instead are built similar to a backpack.
The first part is an EVA foam base, covered in a soft minky or smooth neoprene with powerful neodymium magnets secured inside. Adjustable nylon webbing attached to parachute buckles makes this easy to put on and low profile under clothing.
The second part is the main event, the wings! They're secured onto a EVA foam base that is also lined and has magnets, and this goes on top of the shirt. The backpack part underneath allows for any shirt to be worn while partialling, no need to cut out wing holes.
I can also do backpack wings that are one full piece with no magnets, for extra durability or particularly large sets of wings.