Black Cat costume - Help!

[JuJuBean]

Hi all,

I'm working on a Black Cat (Spider-man) cosplay and was wondering if anyone out there had ideas about how to do the fur embellishments to a catsuit to make it look something like this:


In Yaya Han's version of Black Cat, she used white feathers instead of fur trim and I absolutely love the look, but am wondering how she attached the feathers. Any ideas? It looks like they are sticking out of the seams at the arms, but I'm wondering how she got them to stay in one direction like that. Attached to a fabric strip? Foam? I'm baffled, please let me know if you have a suggestion!

Thanks for your help!

- JuJuBean

 

[keirberos]

Well, I might be able to offer some advice on feathers, because (ironically) I used to be a bird trainer. Go figure.

From the look of the pictures, I would guess she sewed through the quills of the feathers to keep them in place. On most feathers the quill is pretty sturdy, even on softer contour/down feathers like those. Sticking straight out like that, you would probably need to trim the quills, because they would be too long otherwise— that would make the tips pretty scratchy however. A fabric strip would serve to both protect your arm and help stabilize them. My suggestion, if mounting them like that, would be to sew/mount the feathers first, then sew the seam of the sleeve around them, to conceal the base of the quills and stitching. ...Is what I'm saying making sense? I'm worried that I phrased that confusingly.

 

[JuJuBean]

Hi keirberos,

Thank you so much for the advice! I think that does make sense... But, I'm not sure I'm understanding it completely - Do you mean that I would open the seams, and stitch right through each cut quill base as I'm sewing the seam back together by hand and then afterwards add a protective fabric strip on the inside of the sleeve where the quills would be sticking through?