I made you a good tutorial. But I eated it.

13. Oooooh, ouch. Looks like someone broke his jaw, doesn't it? That's because someone did break it. As I put the head on for regular fittings, I learned; stitches can snap more quietly than a cricket farts. More importantly though, my whip stitch needed to be replaced with something that -worked-. I was kinda taken with the eyes at the time though. and the convention was coming up soon. (this was actually made in about three days, but I started three -months- before we were at this point. Ooooh yeah, I know how to stick with a project! (It was honestly pretty low on my to do list, and I didn't think much about it till MFM was just around the bend.)

14&15. Y'see that fur? Innit it gorgeous? 100% scrap fur! I actually (wisely) just keep all my fur scraps in a bag. regardless how big or small because y'never know when you'll need the odd piece.
I also want to try something different here. So instead of trying to get a pattern or anything like that, I actually just sewed the piece down as was. then carefully cut off the excess with my scissors. The result actually looks pretty darn good. Even better than the V1/2 which used precut patterns. The ears had tip fur on them now as well, which can't really be seen, but it's there.

16. EUREKA! I finally figured out that if I made tons of little whip/lock stitches around the entire piece of foam I ended up with a nice looking, and -solid- piece. I even experimentally tugged a cheek piece after doing this technique. Nothing broke that I could see. The only problem? I'd already done the damage with my whip stitching. Most of which was irreversable.
That which I could save, quickly found itself under sewing triage.
Now, you might be wondering what'd I use for upper and lower jaws fur? Gloves. Honest truth, I had lost a glove to my dogs (little buggers ate the hand) and had sewn the other too tightly back in my cowardly days. As a result it'd lost a pinky and was equally useless till this moment.
Cutting the hands off, I turned them inside out and sewed them shut on the one side. pulling them over the foam to stitch up any excess. They fit quite snuggly. but they do still show their seams, and make breathing quite a hassle. I don't know if I'd reccomend this paticular technique to others, but at the time. it was a blessing (I'd been clueless how I was going to do the mouths without cutting up the material I'm storing for my fullsuit.

17. Diving into the bin once again, I start assembling cheeks, eyebrows. and cutting out the eyes.
To toutch upon the eyes. as I feel they do need mentioning. The eyes are bra pads. I love the fact that these two pieces of trash turned out to be such amazing eyes. They're rounded just about right, they have a foam interior that lets them keep their shape. and they sew to buckram quite nicely, the white thread doesn't even stand out too much when not closely scrutinized.
Thanks to the soft material, the entire head is compressable without fear. this means small packing size obviously. But it also means that this head is comfortable. I got accidentally smacked upside the head at one point, and while I felt the impact. the foam of the eyes absorbed the brunt, and promptly sprung back to shape afterwards.
The buckram on the otherhand? I hate.
Do -not- use buckram if you've got poor ventilation and your a four eyes like me.
Until Delilah painted my eyes, I was often literally blind. And while I'm sure folks found it funny seing a silver eyed wolf blindly groping for things (Ohhhh the missed opportunities.) I didn't. vision in suit is crucial. My V2 head is a great example of an option for us glasses wearers. By using a larger mesh, you allow air to flow to not only you, but more importantly your glasses. During the fursuit games at this MFM, some of you may have spotted me playing.
Did you notice how sluggish I was in this head? How bout the fact I was constantly bumping into things, or being bumped into. Then did you see me in the V2? There in fursuit volleyball I felt like a chipmunk on speed. I could see, I could breath, and amazingly, my glasses -never- fogged during the game. The difference? A larger mesh on the eyes and a bit more room inside the head for airflow. That's about it. No fans, no cool-paks. Just the mesh and a bit of room.

18. This was just me demonstrating how compact it could get. Little did I know that during the convention I'd be giving much rougher demonstrations. squishing it into a little ball and grinning as it sprang back to shape like nothing happened.

We're getting to the end folks!