Squirrel Girl is my top fave Marvel hero at the moment, and I just HAD to cosplay her! She is smart, a great friend, hilarious, and drawn with similar body type to me! The writing in this comic is just so much fun. I'm so excited I was able to finish this and wear it for WonderCon, since I don't attend that many comic cons. Of course she got a new costume in between me buying the fabric and actually finishing it, but hey that just means I have more suits to make!
The tail was the most challenging part and the part I was the most worried about! I wanted it to be light weight, so stuffing such a huge piece like a pillow/plush was a definite no. I made a cardboard structure with pieces glued together in a grid to form the shape. Then I draped muslin fabric over it and cut it into 2 pieces, duplicating that for the other side, so that I had a four-piece pattern. I then cut this out of the fur, making sure to brush the fur pile away from the seams so that when sewn together, the fur covers the seams. Then I slipped the cardboard structure inside and handsewed the opening shut. The tail attaches to my bag with huge snaps and a piece of thread at my neck. I did have trouble with the snaps coming loose when I moved suddenly. Part of the problem is that the snaps were hard to sew on to the tail itself, so they came loose...I'll have to rethink that. However, the tail was surprisingly comfortable and very light! I wore it all day with no pain!
For the suit underneath, I used McCall's M7398 (Yaya Han's bunny suit pattern) I did 3 mockups and a lot of alteration to get it to fit me, but it was worth using. I lengthened it, graded from a smaller size on top to larger size on bottom, and straightened out the crotch pieces as they laid oddly. Like, it was really weird and I don't know what kind of human body that would ever fit. Easy fix though. I added a halter strap and more or less made microfur bias tape for the top hem. Sometimes she is drawn with the same fur trim on the legholes, but I decided it looked better without and finished them with elastic instead. It snaps closed at the crotch and back of the neck. The fabric was a lucky find at JoAnn: a lycra backed fleece!
For my jacket, I used Simplicity 0522, a multi-purpose Halloween costume pattern, cropping the length. I liked that the jacket was meant to be open, since I didn't want it to cover up too much of my suit, and it didn't need to close. The dark brown is a suede and the tan is a suiting. I sewed a small facing since I didn't want it to be too hot lining the whole thing. I also did flat felled seams on it!
The utility belt was made last minute and I struggled with poor quality snaps! It snaps together and is made from little boxes of yellow vinyl. I made one pouch bigger to hold my phone - less accurate, but REALLY handy since I didn't want to carry a bag around that day at WonderCon. I'd like to redo it with better snaps.
The wig is a Derek in pumpkin from Arda wigs. I trimmed it a little. For the acorn earrings, my husband found actual acorns and lacquered them for me. I then just glued them to posts. Her ears are supposed to have a very visible headband, so I made them from the same fabric as the suit and sewed them onto a big black headband. Tippy Toe is from a plush by Aurora World. I made a pink bow for her. Gray tights are from We Love Colors, and boots are recycled frohttps://cospix.net/nyunyu/costume/108959#m Katara and more leftover microfur! (they match the jacket, but should actually probably match the suit instead, but oh well)
Photos by Tony Julius
