- Hey friends, Ginny Di here.
And I have to tell you that out of all
of the pieces of my Jester costume from Critical Role
her tail has been easily the most requested tutorial.
I especially got a lot of questions
about it after I did my Jesters music video
because it is extra bouncy in that one.
♪ Healing or slashing or lollipop bashing ♪
♪ We aim and we cast our spells ♪
Good news. It is extremely easy to make.
I actually needed to remake mine
for reasons that we'll go into in this video.
So I am going to walk you through the entire process
and show you a few different ways to create a tiefling tail
or a devil tail in this style.
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I shoot most of my own cosplay photos
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So making a tail, this design is actually really simple.
It's a tube of some kind
for the length and then a spade for the end
and then it connects to your body at the base.
To suspend it so it doesn't drag on the ground
I just have added a little bit
of fishing line and then you connect that line to something
your wrist, your skirt, whatever makes sense for you.
I'm not going to provide an overall materials list
because you can use so many different kinds
of materials to make this.
Instead I'll talk about all the different options
as we go through each step.
We'll start with the length.
In my first version of this tail
I took a rectangle of quilt batting
and rolled it up really thin and hand stitched it
closed into a little tube.
This has worked fine for a long time.
It's lightweight.
It's flexible.
The biggest downside to the quilt batting is just that
over time, it starts to kink
and you get these little folds in the tail.
So in my new version I'm taking a cue
from April Gloria who has made some amazing tiefling tails.
And I am using what is called a foam dowel.
These are the 15 millimeter Yaya Han dowels
that you can get at Joann fabrics.
This is EVA foam, just like craft foam
but it's in a tube shape.
And as you can see, it's really flexible.
The best part is that it can bend
without folding and it keeps that smooth shape.
EVA foam is heat shapeable.
So if your foam gets bent weird like this
or if you want to give it a specific shape
all you have to do is heat it
up with a hairdryer or a heat gun
and then hold it in the desired shape until it cools.
EVA foam does emit toxic chemicals when heated
so work in a well-ventilated area, blah, blah, blah.
These aren't quite long enough individually for my tail.
So I am going to glue two of them together, end to end.
Usually I would use contact cement - fun fact, also toxic
but mine is all dried up.
So I'm just gonna use hot glue.
Next we're going to make the spade for the end.
And you have a lot of options for materials on this.
My original tail spade was made out of craft foam
but with how much I've worn and traveled with Jester
it is looking a little worse for wear.
You could also make it out of cardboard.
You could sculpt it from foam clay, basically
anything lightweight that you can shape.
This time I'm going to use a thicker sturdier EVA foam
and I will shape it with a dremel.
Now I'll glue the spade to the dowel again with hot glue.
And I have a tail shaped thing.
Next step, we need to add color.
I will be doing my tail in blue.
Yours may be a different color depending
on the color of your tiefling.
One great and easy option
for coloring your tail would be to paint it.
However, I'm going to do something a little different.
I use We Love Colors, tights, and gloves, and a leotard
for my Jester costume so that they all match each other
and of course match my face paint.
So I'm going to use those same tights to
make sure my tail matches Jester's skin exactly.
To do that, I'm going to sew a long tube
and a little spade shaped cover.
The good thing about working with tights is that
since they're elastic, you can sew them a little bit smaller
than the thing you're covering
and they'll stretch and have a really snug fit.
I'm just going to sew it
in two parts and then I'll hand stitch them together
once they're on to make sure they stay put.
Next up the jewelry cuff. You could do this
with foam or some other flexible, lightweight material.
Personally, I like using vinyl pleather because it's fabric.
So it's flexible and it can also be sewn
but it also has a glossy surface like metal.
I don't have any in silver
so I'm just going to spray paint mine.
First I measured what size rectangle I would need
in order to wrap fully around the tail.
And then I added a little bit
of embellishment to it to give it some texture.
It's just a cord.
Now I'm spray painting it silver
and letting it dry, blah, blah, blah, ventilation,
don't asphyxiate yourself, please.
While that's drying, we can work on the attachments.
Let's start with the base where it connects to your body.
Personally, I kept Jester's tail really simple and easy.
And I just added a little hook
at the end that can be attached
to a belt loop or a waistband.
I sewed a metal loop onto the back of Jester's skirt
where it would hook together.
And the whole connection is hidden underneath the corset.
I'm using a key chain clip that I got
from the jewelry section of Joann Fabrics.
You could use any connector here.
You could use a small carabiner
or even just a big safety pin.
I just stitched it to the tights.
Now for the lower attachment.
This tail is able to move on its own
because it's suspended from something with fishing line.
That's what gives the tail
it's kind of natural looking bouncing movement.
When I'm wearing a skirt with Jester,
I attach the fishing line to the hem
of the skirt so that the tail hangs just about 10
12 inches below it around calf level.
Other times like with my goth Jester outfit
I'll attach the fishing line to my wrist
so that when I move my hand, the tail moves to match.
Start by attaching the fishing line
just above the tail spade.
You could also attach it to the tip of the tail spade
but I personally like letting the spade hang flat.
I think it looks a little bit more realistic
and less like the tail is hanging from something.
I'm doing this by threading the fishing line
through the tights at the base of the tail.
And then tying it. Just to note
you need to use certain kinds
of knots to effectively tie fishing line.
I'm using what's called the uni knot.
You can also just tie the fishing line around the tail.
If you aren't using tights.
Now, personally, I just tie the other end of the line
to a small safety pin so I can hook it
to whatever's convenient for that version of the costume.
You can make the line as long as you want.
Mine is about a foot. It'll depend
on where you want it to hang
and where you'll be attaching the other end.
Finally, let's finish up with the jewelry.
I like to add a little dangly jewel.
So I'm going to stitch that on as well.
This is just a few pieces cannibalized
from some thrift store jewelry and that's it.
Your tail is complete.
You can now have a proper tiefling booty.
Thanks for watching.
Let me know if you have any questions and feel free to ask
if you have any other costume tutorials that you
would like to see.