Here’s how I made the ears for my Kimahri Ronso Genderbend cosplay!

Materials/Tools List:

• Faux fur fabric (white if you’re going to paint them)
• Paint/paint brushes/water (optional)
• Scissors
• Fabric glue
• Needle/thread
• Paper
• Pencil/pen/marker/etc.

Step 1: Make a pattern

As with most things, you must make a pattern first.  I modeled my ears after Kimahri Ronso’s from Final Fantasy X/X-2, but you can make them into any ear shape you want. Just draw your design out on a piece of paper.

The triangular section that is cut out is to allow for the ear to sit correctly on the head once it is folded.  I fold the pattern from one point to the other to make the proper ear shape.

Step 2: Cut out of faux fur

Once you have your pattern, use it to cut the shape out of faux fur fabric. Make sure you mirror the pattern for the other side of your head!  You can see in the second picture how my ears folded to have the right shape.

 

 

Step 3: Paint (optional)

 

Don’t worry if you couldn’t find a specific color of fur! You can paint white fur to be whatever color you want!  I needed purplish blue gradient for mine, so I painted them with fabric paints.  I recommend the Martha Stewart brand multi-surface paint. I used white, blue, black, and red to create the custom color I wanted.

In order for your paint to go on as smoothly as possible, you’ll need to soak your faux fur in water before painting.  This keeps you from adding too much paint and making the fur crusty. I just used a mason jar full of water and dunked my ears in.

Starting on the back side of the fur, I painted the darkest color first.

Then, I moved on and added the other colors to the gradient from dark to light.

Next, I flipped the ear over to see how the paint had soaked through to the front side.  THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT TO HAPPEN.  You want the paint to soak through because that way it coats as much of the fibers as possible completely with paint.

If there are any spots that the paint didn’t soak through (like the darkest part of my ears), just paint over them on the front.

Last, use a plastic comb to brush the fur fibers along the grain.  This will make sure the fur lays nicely when it dries. Now go ahead and let to dry completely!  This could take a while, so leave it overnight and check in the morning.

Step 4: Add fur to the inside

Since there is only fur on one side of your fabric, you’ll need to add some to hide the ugly backing.  To do this, just cut some fur fiber from an extra piece of faux fur fabric and glue it to the backside of the ear.

 

Fabric glue works excellently for this.  I used a paint brush to paint some glue on, then I pressed some fur fibers into it.  I also painted some more glue on top of the fibers as well for extra hold.

Since we’re folding our ears in half, you only really need to glue fibers to one half of the ear.  As you can see below, one half is plenty!

Also go ahead and glue the ears folded down so that they keep their shape.  It will make things easier.

Step 5: Attach your ears

To attach my ears to my head, I sewed them into my wig.  Just by using a needle and thread, I hand sewed the ears in place.

First mark where you want your ears to be while it is on a wig head. I used a sewing pin.

Then sew the ear into the wig by hand using a needle and thread.  A curved needle works best for this, but you can use a regular needle as well.  Use a thread the same color as your wig fiber and sew the ear to the wig cap.

Once you’re done, your ears should sit up on your wig on their own!

If you won’t be wearing a wig or you simply don’t want to sew the ears into the wig at all, there are other ways you could attach your ears to your head.  Headbands are a great way to do this.  Just attach your ears to a headband by gluing them on.

Now you’ve got a custom made pair of ears for your next cosplay!