Growing Tails: How to Make a Realistic Wolf Tail Out of Yarn
One Origin of Werewolves
As a fantasy reader and writer, I love werewolves – both the monster and romantic kinds. But the werewolf novels I grew up with were quite different from the ones today. They were extremely male-dominated. It always bothered me how women didn’t get turned very often. I wanted to able to be a werewolf too.
Then I stumbled across one of the origins of werewolves and this disparity made a bit of sense. While wolf shapeshifter stories have been around for longer than I can count, the man-eating versions really took off during the witch trials, especially in France. If you wanted to get back at or get rid of a woman in your community, you accused her of being a witch. If it was a man you wanted to eliminate, you made him a werewolf.
Considering how the blood-thirsty, full-moon cursed werewolves started, it’s understandable why those stories featured men. Now I’m happy to see more women werewolves as the stories expand to include different kinds of werewolves and tropes. This is why when I wrote “Wolf Girl” from my modern fairy tale collection When Magic Calls, I knew I wanted to focus on a female wolf.
Wolf Girl quickly transformed into something more than a werewolf. She is both a girl raised by a wolf pack and a goddess of the forest. When I decided to do 31 days of Halloween costumes, I looked for ideas to dress up as Wolf Girl and learned how to make a tail out of yarn.
How to Make a Wolf Tail Out of Yarn
Supplies
For Tail
100% Acrylic Yarn x3
Wire Dog Brush
Scissors
Thread
Wire
Fabric to Brush on
Time
For Ears
Thrift Store Ears
Yarn
Felt
Thread
Glue
Wolf Tail Part 1
Cut 6 lengths of yarn, so when they are folded in half, they are slightly longer than you want your finished tail.
Note: My tail is 2 feet long and my lengths of yarn were about 2.5 feet before I braided them.
If you want to mold your tail, cut a piece of wire 1 inch shorter than the lengths of yarn so it doesn’t stick out.
Note: I forgot to do this and had to weave my wire through. You need an thick, strong wire to really bend your tail.
Fold the yarn and wire in half and tie a knot at the top, leaving a big enough loop to string a belt through.
Braid the yarn and wire together.
Tie a knot at the bottom. Leave 3 inches free and brush out the ends with the wire pet brush.
Cut remaining yarn into 6-7 inch strips.
Note: For extra thick tails, make these closer to 8-10 inches.
Tie 6-8 pieces together into a knot and brush out the ends.
Note: A LOT of yarn will brush out. It will look like roughly half. This is normal.
Make enough fur tuffs to fill out the tail. This will take a while.
Note: I didn’t count mine, but I’d bet I made close to 100 tuffs for my tail. Shorter tails won’t need as many.
Wolf Tail Part 2
Starting from the bottom, begin sewing one wolf tuffs.
Note: Keep tuffs close together for a full tail. I sewed 3-4 per row for my tail.
Sew tuffs all the way up to the top knot.
Note: If you want a fox tail or different colors, use one color of yarn for the braid and bottom 1/4 to 1/3 of tail. Then switch to the second color for the rest of the way.
Brush out tail.
String belt or ribbon or fabric through top loops.
Tie tail around waist and enjoy!
Note About the Ears
I don’t like how the ears turned out. They are too big for my taste. However, they worked for what I needed and do match my tail, so I’m sharing how I made them.
I do LOVE the tail.
Modifying Wolf Ears
Get some inexpensive animal ears from a thrift store or discount Halloween section.
Cover band in fluff you pulled from tuffs of hair with glue.
Cut 3-4 inch lengths of yarn.
Tie 4 pieces of yarn together and brush out to create tuffs.
Sew tuffs onto ears and brush hair up.
After ears are covered, trim hair to shape and shorten it to your liking.
Note: Cut hair at an angle like a hair dresser for a more even look.
Cut out felt pieces in the shape of a rounded triangle for inside of ears.
Glue felt onto the ears.
Enjoy your wolf tail and matching ears!
Pic and a Video of Me as Wolf Girl
Caitlin Berve is the author of When Magic Calls: A Collection of Modern Fairy Tales and currently working on a fantasy novel involving an arranged marriage, damsels who save themselves, and non-human shape-shifters. Through her company Ignited Ink Writing and MFA, she edits other people’s novels, creates video tutorials, teaches, and writes. Caitlin seeks to fill the world with the kind of writing that lingers with readers, pet all the fluffy and scaly animals she can, and find magic in modern times.