Thread: Wolf from an animated Christmas deer

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Need some help - I'm getting ready to glue the fur into place. Is there any tricks to cutting the fur the right size? How do you apply the fur in the neck area, so there will be no opening when the deer turns it head (side to side)?

Any help woukd be greatly appreciated!

I'm just now getting to that part also, so I can't help you any there. For mine I first wrapped some carpet padding around the body to bulk it up. I plan to either use wire or to sew the fur to the carpet padding to hold it in place.
I would just overlap the fur a bit in the opening in the neck. 1/2 with the neck fur piece, 1/2 with the body fur piece. Check to make sure the head still moves properly first!

Mine is different then most of the ones in this thread, but I made a "flap" that extends down from the neck and cover the part that rotates when the head moves side to side. Then I just covered the part underneath it that wraps around the body. I attached my fur with hobby wire and hot glue. Hot glue for most of the body and wire for the jaw because it moves.

You can kind of see the flap on the neck at the 1:30 mark.

YouTube - Dog Wolf how to

Originally Posted by daspizz23

Need some help - I'm getting ready to glue the fur into place. Is there any tricks to cutting the fur the right size? How do you apply the fur in the neck area, so there will be no opening when the deer turns it head (side to side)?

Any help woukd be greatly appreciated!

Like DaveintheGrave I'm not at that stage yet either. I do think if you look back in the thread there were some comments made about attaching the fur with glue including pics as I recall.

I've been thinking about how to proceed also. Not sure if I want to glue or maybe make several sections of fur that can be sewn together and attached in a couple of places. Sort of like tailoring a clothing piece. I'm going to want to have a flap of some sort so that I can reach in and turn on the eyes (mine has a switch). I also am contemplating putting a cheap m3p player inside him with speaker wires running someplace (along with the electrical cord to the motor) and I would want to get access to both at some point. Since my mask head is brown fur and I am using black fur for the wolf, I may just remove the fabric stitching on the mask and separate the plastic face and ears from the fur and use the brown fur as a pattern to cut out and stitch a new head piece. Right now my brown werewolf mask can just be pulled over the head and easily removed the same way. It's a bit longer than the neck and the reindeer moves fine with the mask on so I may just stick with the basics of what I have. I'll probably wrap the legs and handle the body and head separately.

As for cutting the fur for the body, keep in mind the way the fur lays and how you want it to lay on the wolf. I'm leaning towards making a fabric pattern using some old sheet material and laying it on the wolf form and marking it. Then pinning and cutting it out. Call me Ms. McCall! Too bad I was never good at Home Ec and my apron or skirt didn't turn out all that well.


BTW the Van Dyke Taxidermy site has some interesting how-to's including a section on Forms & How to Measure Forms. Maybe it will give you some ideas on how to start. Here's the link to their web page for tutorials: Van Dykes Taxidermy

Photo from two years ago... dang, got started, ran out of time and fnished last year. I had cut the legs down to keep from the deer look, mounted speakers and MP3 player inside of body

Your wolf looks really good, gravedigger!
Good idea about the speakers. I think the only room I have left in mine for speakers is in the butt!

Decided to use my current furry brown-haired head mask as a pattern for my black fur wolf so will start marking and ripping the seams holding the fabric to the mask. I'll create a pattern from the removed brown fur and use the pattern to cut the black fabric for the head mask. Having never done any sewing with faux fur before I found these three instruction and tip sites that seem helpful. Hope to get the head pretty much completed this weekend.

How to Cut and Sew Fake Fur

How to Sew Faux Fur

How to Sew Faux Fur Fabric | eHow.com

OK-here's a few update pics from my wolf.
I used carpet padding to bulk up the body and also to give me something to attach the fur to.






I've got the body fur put on and the front legs installed. I've also got his tail finished, just need to attach it and then work on the neck/head. His back legs should go on today.

found the video of the wolf from last year. the red lights below are for me. took for ever to get the camera placed in the correct spot for the lightening effect. I gave up and put the red lights below for a reference fo the photo.

YouTube - dog from christmas raindeer

Thanks Gravedigger Greg. Unfortunately I can't really see anything much on my computer. Too dark at this end. Any other pics of the wolf when he was done?