Tips and photo examples graciously provided by Andrea Adams.

When constructing a show-quality costume, one thing that is often a difficulty is concealing the openings of the costume. It should not be apparent to an observer how the costume is donned, the costume's character should simply exist in a perpetual present tense in the minds of the audience. Visible zippers or fasteners can quickly dispell that illusion. hat follows is one method for concealing large zippers on a sewn suit costume.

Construct the Body Suit

Design the body with an idea of where you want the opening. I recommend looking for lines of color change near where you want to place the closure. Color boundaries are useful since you already need to deal with the transition between different pieces of fur.

Construct the body suit and fit it. Leave extra material where you want to place the zipper closure. Creating this sort of closure requires three to four inches of overlap along the line of the closure.

Zipper and Velcro Closure

On the underlying piece of fur, shave down the fur pile to the backing. Sew down strips of Velcro along this shaved path. Sew one side of your zipper to the edge of this piece of fur. This completes the under half of the closure.

The overlapping side of the closure needs to be set up to mate with this half. The edge of the outer piece of fur should line up with the egde of the shaved area, creating a smooth fur surface. This means that the zipper will need to be several inches in from the edge of the upper piece of fur. So the second half of the zipper needs to be sewn either directly to the backing of the fur or to a smaller piece of connecting fabric (which will make it much easier to operate).

Sew matching Velcro patches to the underside of the outer layer last. This allows for more accurate alignment once the zipper is in place. Trim down edges and fur as necessary to blend the closure line.