Fursuit Maintinence Suggestions
- Thread starter Shino
- Start date
onai
New Member
Things that I do:
- I generally keep my heads out for display in my work area, on a shelf that's well away from anything that could get on or damage them in anyway. The rest of the suits (aside from bodysuits, which i hang up to keep wrinkles and such out) I store in their travel containers, which are 24 gallon action packers. This size is accepted by all airlines, and I can easily fit a fullsuit in one, or two partial suits.
-As far was what i wear undernieth, generally a bandanna on my head to keep sweat somewhat under control and out of my eyes. As for the rest of me- underarmour. though i use the stuff from ewalmart. it protects the suit, wicks sweat, and keeps you cooler ^-^
- i stuff dryer sheets inside the heads, and make sure to throughly disinfect them and dry them, along with all other parts of the suit, after each wearing.
- I generally keep my heads out for display in my work area, on a shelf that's well away from anything that could get on or damage them in anyway. The rest of the suits (aside from bodysuits, which i hang up to keep wrinkles and such out) I store in their travel containers, which are 24 gallon action packers. This size is accepted by all airlines, and I can easily fit a fullsuit in one, or two partial suits.
-As far was what i wear undernieth, generally a bandanna on my head to keep sweat somewhat under control and out of my eyes. As for the rest of me- underarmour. though i use the stuff from ewalmart. it protects the suit, wicks sweat, and keeps you cooler ^-^
- i stuff dryer sheets inside the heads, and make sure to throughly disinfect them and dry them, along with all other parts of the suit, after each wearing.
Aero_husky
New Member
So far, I have only worn my fursuit once (debuted it on Halloween). I just used LOTS of deodorant while in the costume, then let it air out over night before putting it away. I still need to re-glue parts of the feet, since I did alot of walking and the foam on one side has started to detach from the shoe. I learned the hard way that I should have trimmed the bottom of the legs where they were too long (I got home and realized I had been walking on the fur!!!) I will need to trim that, and I desperately need to give my suit some major liposuction, since the seamstress that helped me made it too big. I have definately learned from my mistakes, and hopefully I can repair everything and make my fursuit look good. But this is my first one, so I didn't expect it to be perfect. Oh yeah, what should I use to cover the bottom of the feet? I can't just leave it exposed anymore :/
ScrapeGoat
Frightener of Small Children
you could glue some thick leather over the bottoms of the feet, or use some kind of durable foam pad. Concrete is hell on soft material. Or, you could build some huge oversize sandals..
ScrapeGoat
Frightener of Small Children
You don't need to disinfect your tail. The flu virus is droplet-borne (Sneezing and coughing) and is only viable for a brief period of time outside the body
ScrapeGoat
Frightener of Small Children
Doublepost-
Re: deodorizing suits....I bought a suit at FC, first time I've ever bought one but this one was speeeeecial. Anyway, the guy who had it before me let someone else wear it for the fursuit parade. I already have issues with wearing someone esle's suit or letting anyone else wear mine- my suits are personal, kind of like my underwear and when I put someone else's on I feel kind of like I'm....never mind. Doubleplus ungood.
Anyway, when I put it on later I was like *sniff sniff* and realized the guy had TOTALLY pitted it out. I mean like bad enough that I had to wrap the bodysuit in plastic so it didn't contaminate my other luggage with the smell. Bad enough that I almost couldn't bear the thought of putting the suit back on.
So. It's totally funked out and I'm kinda whining about it in the FC lobby and asking around on how to best get armpit-soaked fursuit stench out. A couple people suggested Woolite or Febreze. Trouble is I hate the smell of Febreze almost as much as I hate the smell of sweaty furry armpits.
The best suggestion I got was from some helpful fur who recommended using baking soda and water. He said it was better than using Woolite due to soap's tendency to leave a filmy residue on the fabric which will later attract more dirt. When I asked him how he came by this knowledge he stated that he cleaned carpets professionally, which was enough of a tip to me that I should at least try it before exploring other options. So, I got a fresh box of baking soda, and wet just the armpitty portions of the suit with cold water. Then I took a small handful of the baking soda and rubbed it into the pits, squished it around for a couple seconds and rinsed it several times. I repeated this twice. It's now drying on a hangar under a fan and there is NO ARMPIT ODOR AT ALL. Zero. Nada.
No apparent damage to the fabric either. Wow. Tell everyone.
Re: deodorizing suits....I bought a suit at FC, first time I've ever bought one but this one was speeeeecial. Anyway, the guy who had it before me let someone else wear it for the fursuit parade. I already have issues with wearing someone esle's suit or letting anyone else wear mine- my suits are personal, kind of like my underwear and when I put someone else's on I feel kind of like I'm....never mind. Doubleplus ungood.
Anyway, when I put it on later I was like *sniff sniff* and realized the guy had TOTALLY pitted it out. I mean like bad enough that I had to wrap the bodysuit in plastic so it didn't contaminate my other luggage with the smell. Bad enough that I almost couldn't bear the thought of putting the suit back on.
So. It's totally funked out and I'm kinda whining about it in the FC lobby and asking around on how to best get armpit-soaked fursuit stench out. A couple people suggested Woolite or Febreze. Trouble is I hate the smell of Febreze almost as much as I hate the smell of sweaty furry armpits.
The best suggestion I got was from some helpful fur who recommended using baking soda and water. He said it was better than using Woolite due to soap's tendency to leave a filmy residue on the fabric which will later attract more dirt. When I asked him how he came by this knowledge he stated that he cleaned carpets professionally, which was enough of a tip to me that I should at least try it before exploring other options. So, I got a fresh box of baking soda, and wet just the armpitty portions of the suit with cold water. Then I took a small handful of the baking soda and rubbed it into the pits, squished it around for a couple seconds and rinsed it several times. I repeated this twice. It's now drying on a hangar under a fan and there is NO ARMPIT ODOR AT ALL. Zero. Nada.
No apparent damage to the fabric either. Wow. Tell everyone.
Hyasinth
I'm a man, baby
Wow... that's awesome. Although- a question. I'm not underage myself but what would you recommend for a fursuiter under 21 (or 18 depending on where they're from) who can't go out and buy Everclear?
ScrapeGoat
Frightener of Small Children
I suppose you could always ask your parents or adult friends to buy it for you and use it under supervision.
You *might* also try a denatured alcohol solution like rubbing (isopropyl) alcohol or methanol. I would imagine it would have similar properties but I have never tried it so I don't know if it would leave any sort of residue or be any more or less likely to affect adhesives or fabric dyes. Your mileage may vary, You'd want to be real careful with any of that stuff around painted parts.
Maybe one day as an experiment I will gather up a bunch of fursuit materials, do a cross-compatibility test and then post the results.
ScrapeGoat
Frightener of Small Children
Kinda depends on how the colors were applied. If it's the original color of the material it is likely colorfast/permanently dyed. If anything was airbrushed, well...there's a good possibility it could run if hit with any kind of solvent.
Recommend you test your cleaning methods in an inconspicuous area first, or contact the maker and tell them what you intend to do.
Never use heat to dry, air dry works even for bulky stuff as long as you drip-dry or gently hand wring it, then put a huge fan on it and turn it periodically.
allenjohnson
New Member
If anyone is interested. Old thread now. I successfully washed a NFT pure white fursuit body in a washing machine. Delicate cycle, cold water with the designated amount of woolite. I also put in 2 cap fulls of bleach. Yep the nasty chlorine bleach. Went thru spin dry cycle too. Then I hung it up with a fan inside it for 24hrs. The tail took the longest to dry. It came out beautiful. I don't recommend this practice to anything colored though. But the big thing is that the NFT did not shrink. I remember though, the water got really dirty. And it was a white suit with no visible soil. So the moral here is wash your suits. They get dirty whether you see it or not.
KarabinerCoyote
Steely-Eyed Rocket Guy
If you do dry clean a fursuit, then airing it out would be adviseable as the fumes could put you down. I have seen such warnings about dry-cleaning sleeping bags.
Shukie
Hyperactive Bunnyfox
this threads been especially useful to me o.o As i should be getting a fursuit within the next six months so i'm out seeking as much info as i can to take care of it when i get it. It'll be a partial, as i have a tendancy to overhead in normal everyday conditions and me+ bodysuit would likely end in a hospital visit. but this thread is VERY VERY informative and i want to thank EVERYONE who has given information to this thread so that we can all give our suits a long long life with them still looking and smelling nice.
KarabinerCoyote
Steely-Eyed Rocket Guy
Military Surplus stores can be good sources for containers to store fursuits. Just saw a couple plastic footlockers this afternoon. There's also canvas duffle bags and quartermaster bags. These too can be locked.
To disinfect/deodorize I just use a spray disinfectant aerosol.
To disinfect/deodorize I just use a spray disinfectant aerosol.
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KarabinerCoyote
Steely-Eyed Rocket Guy
After an outing, I lightly spray it with disinfectant, then place the head piece over both towers of a boot dryer for at least an hour. I picked up a cheap boot dryer from Menards for under $10 that runs on D batteries or AC with adapter included.
Penumbra Noct
New Member
Logically it would be dry cleaning that affords the best cleaning and least amount of damage to a suit. I have no idea the price or even if all dry cleaners will take something like a full suit. The headpiece seems problematic, however if they were able to dry clean a fursuit I'm sure it would be the most effective in both ways. Anyone willing to bring a full suit down to the dry cleaners and ask..? I'd be curious to find out.
Flarveon
Member
Question: I have a fullsuit, with unattached hands/feet, but the tail (a red panda x raccoon tail) is completely attached to the body. How would I go about washing this?
For more detail, the front chest floof is longpile MM black fox fur (female fluff kinda thing), rest is short pile cubby fur, and the tail is tightly stuffed and made of MM black and white fox fur.
I'm not entirely sure how to go about washing this :/ I mean the tail does not REALLY bend unless I willingly make it and hold it like that. Also, in Australia we don't have woolite, any other washing products I could use?
Edit: Picture to help explain: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5598332/ and http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5609383/
You can see the chest floof and the attached tail.
For more detail, the front chest floof is longpile MM black fox fur (female fluff kinda thing), rest is short pile cubby fur, and the tail is tightly stuffed and made of MM black and white fox fur.
I'm not entirely sure how to go about washing this :/ I mean the tail does not REALLY bend unless I willingly make it and hold it like that. Also, in Australia we don't have woolite, any other washing products I could use?
Edit: Picture to help explain: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5598332/ and http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5609383/
You can see the chest floof and the attached tail.
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widdlyscuds
New Member
I have a question!
I recently bought a partial from another person off of FA. This is my first fursuit, so even though I've read up on how to clean them, I'm afraid to mess up (especially the head!). So, what I was thinking- Could I take a washcloth (soaked in Woolite then squeezed to get the rest out of it), LIGHTLY hand wash the head with that, then get another washcloth (soaked in cold water), do the same thing, then dry it?
I recently bought a partial from another person off of FA. This is my first fursuit, so even though I've read up on how to clean them, I'm afraid to mess up (especially the head!). So, what I was thinking- Could I take a washcloth (soaked in Woolite then squeezed to get the rest out of it), LIGHTLY hand wash the head with that, then get another washcloth (soaked in cold water), do the same thing, then dry it?
Ozriel
Inglorious Bastard
There's a teddy bear cleaner out there called Siege, and it is gentle to use on most fursuit heads.
You can also use some spot treatment on it to get rid of some dirt stains.
What I do for getting grime and oils out of my head is a mid of Alcohol, water and amonia on a cloth and gently get the inside. It gets rid of oil and bacteria.
I would avoid hand-washing fursuit heads.