Today will be showing you how to make a perfect duct tape dummy for your custom fitted fursuit.  First off you will need a painters suit that you can find at any hardware store.  For us we went to a local home depot and collected the necessary supplies to make our DTD.

 

For tape we recommend the scotch brand white duct tape, this duct tape sticks better to itself to ensure a better DTD but if you're on a budget regular silver duck tape will do, all though it is not as good as the scotch tape.  

 

First off make sure to have some friends help you with this project, make sure your model has used the restroom before beginning this long process. to ensure that our DTD is as accurate to our model as possible we asked the model to remove all clothing except her bra and underwear, any bulky clothing under your dtd will result in a bigger suit since we add seam allowance and movement space to our DTD when patterning our fursuit.

 

Now that your model is in the painter's suit you will need to tailor it to fit snugly to your model.  We first start off by pinching the back and taping around the waist line to keep it in place.  The next area is the crotch and thigh area, you will need scissors for this part.

 

Have your model spread their legs slightly, then make the cut down the center from the back to front following the seam in the painter's suit, you will then take each corner on the inner leg and fold the sides and tape it down.  You may sometimes notice there is now a hole in the crotch, if this occurs then just simply take some cling wrap, cover the hole and tape in place.  When taping remember to only tape in strips, taping the DTD too tightly can cut off circulation making it hard to cut off after finishing and can harm your model.

 

After taping the crotch, thigh and hip area it's time to move on to the feet.  It's important to tape the feet before the legs because you can end up bunching to much of the painter's suit resulting in a short leg. We ask our customer to tape half of the foot to ensure that we know exactly where the ankle ends.  If you feel there is not enough painters suit to cover the foot you can simply cover the foot and ankle with cling wrap and tape over that.  Never place tape on skin this will make your DTD experience very uncomfortable and can run the risk of your tape sticking to other parts of the DTD and ruining it, It's important that every part of tape has a backing.

 

You can now finish taping the leg, once you are finished you are halfway there. Make sure your model is okay and remember to stay hydrated during the making of your DTD it will get hot for your model so turning on a fan can help improve the comfort of your model.

 

Now on to the arms, you will need your model to place their arm straight out making sure it is level with their shoulder, if you fail to do this you will end up with arms that don't fit limiting your mobility and can be uncomfortable.  In this video we are using a old camera tripod that our model can hold onto so her arms do not get as tired. just like the crotch you will need to cut the armpit of the painter's suit to make sure it is snug to your model.  Using cling wrap to cover the remaining hole left by the cut.

 

Before taping the rest of the arm you will need to cover and tape the hand just like the foot.  We ask that you tape your hand so we know exactly where your wrist is on the DTD.  Once you have finished taping the hand and wrist you can now finish taping the arm and chest. another important area is the neck, make sure to tape as close to the neck as possible but also make sure not to make it too tight!

 

This can be very dangerous for your model if you make the tape too tight!  Once your model is completely taped, double check for any areas you may have missed.

 

It's time to mark where you will cut on the DTD.  It’s important to make dashes on the DTD so when taping it back together the dashes will show you where to line it up again, we start by cutting the arms and legs.

 

For the arms cut about 5 inches past the elbow and 5 inches past the knee.  If necessary you may need to cut more depending on your model.  You will need to make another cut starting from the back of the neck down the center to about your models tailbone.  If using one of the painters suits this cut will not be necessary as there is a zipper going down the chest, just make sure not to cover the zipper with tape!

You will then gently pull the DTD off your model, if more cutting is needed then cut more until your model is free from the DTD, the final step in your DTD is taping up the seams where you cut them, folding the DTD for shipment.