Craftin advice?

[hatman]

I'm making slippers for a friend and his family. I've done the ones I know how to do, but the kids are into MLP, so I find myself in the position of trying to make ponies (specifically, Pinkie Pie and Vinyl Scratch) with fluffy manes. I've done Pinkie Pie's main body, but I need to do the head and tail.

As it turns out, there's a brand of yarn called Fun Fur which looks about perfect. I found it in just the colors I needed. But I don't know how to make it look right. My initial plan was to basically treat it like actual hair - have 4-inch lengths of furry yarn coming out of the fabric, knotted at the base and then allowed to fall free. That may yet be the best option. But this is yarn. It's designed to be knit or crocheted. And I wonder if it might end up looking better that way. (Of course, I don't know how to knit or crochet, but I could probably learn the basics. Maybe I could even have my niece teach me. She knits scarves and stuff.)

The makers of Fun Fur have free patterns and instructions online. I've opened a few (like this little fox here) in tabs to explore later. (Going to be AFK most of the rest of today. I'm also really incredibly tired because I haven't slept properly in weeks, even by my low standards.)

But it occurs to me that I've got some crafty people on my list around these parts (assuming anyone is still reading this blog) and maybe some of y'all might have some suggestions. So... do you?

Comments

[kaylle.livejournal.com]

Shada mentioned your project to me over the weekend, and I thought I'd pop in to suggest another option. I bought my brother a faux taxidermy My Little Pony for Christmas this year from an Etsy seller (yeah, I know how weird that sounds, but it was really adorable when it got here :)). The hair on that was actually plush, like an extra limb, instead of yarn at all. So you could go that route if you wanted to avoid the fun fur?

(http://www.etsy.com/listing/153679008/my-little-pony-taxidermy-all-mane-ponies?ref=shop_home_active)

[pgwfolc.livejournal.com]

That looks terrifying.

I do kind of like the hair. It'd be a good backup plan. But I figured out how to make the fun fur work. Just had to give up the idea of doing it the easy way, having it wrapped in circles. But it turns out to look so much better when it's straight, so the fur all goes in the same direction, like actual hair.

Thanks, though! :)