Beware: Lemonbrat

7 hours ago, armaina said:

/cut

I dunno if you're confused but I'm not defending Lemonbrat or part of their group, I was just saying that suit reads way more as feline than what Camaro received. I wasn't necessarily saying it's more accurate of a big cat either, just that it's clearly feline while Camaro's head is obviously a rodent head, and the tail is much thinner and more accurately represents a feline tail than the one Camaro got. 

Gosh, the seams on the body suit are just so strangely placed.. Hm.

At any rate, I came here to offer a suggestion about the tail problem. I have a tail of similar length and size on one of my personal suits and it's sewn directly into the suit. A tail of that size should cause no problem on the body suit and it shouldn't stretch the fur over time. It looks pretty light!
You should also be able to wash it in a machine or tub while it's attached. For drying tho, I would suggest getting a fan not only just for the body suit but also a dedicated fan for just the tail as the tail will take much longer to dry than the bodysuit since the tail is stuffed. Otherwise there should be 0 issues here.

So see what you can do about getting someone to sew it directly into the hole (or whatever the attachment thing they did is) where it goes into. You can keep the belt loops on the tail and use a belt to help keep the tail secure and transfer whatever weight it does have onto your own waist vs the bodysuit-- but you probably won't need to use a belt tbh. Just an extra measure you could take.

I hope this helps and wasn't too confusing! If you have questions, feel free to reply and Ill try my best to help.

Regarding fursuit care instructions, I can offer up a few things:

Washing/Cleaning
-Faux fur is safe to put in the wash, but I would turn the suit inside-out first. This will give you access to the digitigrade padding, which may allow you to remove it (If you do remove it, take notes/pictures of what you removed from where, and maybe also mark the pieces with a fabric marker so that you can put them back together in the right place).
-Always wash your suit in cold water.
-A delicate detergent is generally ideal, but your mileage may vary. (Sometimes, carpet cleaner is the only thing that works.) Some detergents, delicate or not, don't interact well with some furs. If you have concerns and have some of the fur available fur repairs, test it on a scrap piece before using it on your suit.
-If you use a washing machine, use a delicate cycle. Also put your suit into a laundry bag to prevent it from getting caught on anything. Put your paws, hand and foot, into pillow cases to keep them from getting any weird stains onto anything else.
-If you're hand-washing, your tub is your friend and you can use it for soaking.

Drying
-Fans are helpful. Very helpful.
-Do not use heat for drying. It will melt the fur.
-While a lot of folks will hang up their suits to dry, the weight of the damp fur can cause stretching at the shoulders.

At Con Care
-Dryer sheets are super useful for quickly drying out your head and paws. Scented ones can also help combat odors.
-Disinfecting sprays (water and rubbing alcohol) are your friend and will help keep your suit fresh between wears. Keep the spray away from anything airbrushed or electronic on your suit. You may also need to keep it away from the eyes, depending on how they've been made.
-If you haven't, invest in some UnderArmor and a balaclava to help keep moisture away from the suit whenever possible.
-Take frequent breaks and put your health at a priority over anyone else's idea of magic.

Travel
-Have some kind of tote for travel. Some folks have things like footlockers. Others have plastic totes. I use a hard-shell suitcase.

Hope that helps with some of the confusion around fursuit care. Sorry I can't help with any of the other issues!
 

So, I asked for the care instructions and "how-to" put the suit on information (for my specific suit) from Lemonbrat 2 weeks ago, the email finally arrived last night. 
The care instructions seem pretty generic, maybe even copied and pasted from some website online I don't know, it says nothing specifically about short, minky fur.

It's not really an issue.  I've asked for the material colours and the source, I said for repair reasons, but... I may have had other ideas in mind like comissioning a new suit from someone else using the same colours. 

I felt if I told them that, they would not have told me.   Anyway, the sent me what seems to me like a really confusing image of the colours.   Now, I only remembering choosing two colours.  Champaign and Tawny, possibly Minky Black for my details.   Now I asked them to add information on which furs where used for which parts.    There are 3 shades of black alone.  (I originally thought two) In total there are 7 different colours of fur listed in there email. 

As this is my first fursuit, I'm not sure it is normal practice, but I thought it might be worth mentioning anyway.   Either I am having a really hard time understanding basic information, or communication is an really big issue.    I've been at my first convention and already the fur is starting to bald in places.  This is not a good sign.   The zipper is constantly jamming, even when you ensure to make sure the fur is not in the way when you zip up.    They've put a plastic puller on a metal zip on both the head and the back.

It seems like instead of seperating the fabric and the fur, they've simply turned the zip backwards somehow - it's really strange.   The zipper and fabric seem to seperate on the inside, but not where it counts on the outside. 

I'll provide more pictures soon.   They're is no possible way to put this suit on, or get out of it without help.   If you really need to get out of suit quickly in a medical emergency, be prepared to get cut out of it if you don't have a handler because it can easily take an hour just to get in and out of suit.  30-40 minutes if you really try to hurry.  (impossible if you are on your own)

Again, not sure if this is normal, this is my first fullsuit, but I thought my experience might be worth mentioning. 

[Edit: Thought it might be worth mentioning that the Fursuit Team and Security at EuroFurence, were constantly saying things like "Oh, the zipper keeps jamming, this must be a Lemonbrat suit"  Just thought that might be worth noting]

Camaro.

This is how the suit looks now.   It's better.  That's all I can say.

A lot of people have been making lovely comments about how I acted well at the convention, and worked really hard to make people smile even though my suit wasn't ideal. 

The love and support I've gotten in the community these past few weeks has been humbling.  I love you all. 

I'm sure you can draw your own conclusions from the photos.

Camaro.

I've sent another complaint regarding my suit.   The fur is starting to fall out.  T_T

The suit is balding?!

I have cheap fur that shed all the time but never have it turned bald. Can you post some pictures?

I've uploaded these images by request.

My camera sucks and doesn't really show you what I see.

The honeycombing underneath can be seen and there seems to be a 'lump' of fur missing, and some of the fur looks like it's been 'shaved' too short.   It's the best way I can describe it.   The size is about the size of the area is about the size of a giant peanut.  (can think of anything else to describe the size)

4 minutes ago, camarofurry said:

I've uploaded these images by request.

My camera sucks and doesn't really show you what I see.

The honeycombing underneath can be seen and there seems to be a 'lump' of fur missing, and some of the fur looks like it's been 'shaved' too short.   It's the best way I can describe it.   The size is about the size of the area is about the size of a giant peanut.  (can think of anything else to describe the size)

...

Where is this patch (head, body, hands) and is it like that all the time? Even with high quality fur you can still see the backing if you part the fibers.

On 8/22/2019 at 10:18 PM, Dergish said:

Where is this patch (head, body, hands) and is it like that all the time? Even with high quality fur you can still see the backing if you part the fibers.

I only noticed this area because there was a visible 'line' in the fur that won't go away with brushing. 
I feel that there's not much more I can say about the issues with the suit, and I want to thank everyone so much, especially the AB team, and the
community for there love, and support.   It has been a hard few months for me, and I couldn't have made it without you.  I will never forget your kindness.

I have made a final statement regarding everything that happened, and if you want you can read that.   It's a pretty long statement, about just over a page on word.  I express my thanks and my final thoughts there and you can read that here if you wish.   I'll be requesting a thread lock from the moderation team, but that decision will ultimately be up to them.   I feel there's not much more that can be contributed to this issue, and again, I really want to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for there love, support, and advice over these past couple of months.   It really means a lot to me.

Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BHMnCcpFPrwHTP3nqUlnabLIfcK6ykmTbYh50fQ7GTI/edit?usp=sharing

On 8/1/2019 at 3:25 PM, Kiarra said:

So I've gotten a suit from Lemonbrat and they have been nothing but kind and courteous and prompt with their responses. 

This to me looks like buyer's remorse. The images you provided make it seem like you were contacted in March about your due date and work had started on the suit in June. Which you received wips for. Where are the rest of the emails from them? In order to clear the air I would provide them.

Tmk Lemonbrat doesn't make changes unless it's requested by the customer. They send wip pictures and you need to approve them before more work is done on the suit.

They have their customers choose the fur colors, they even send swatches. So that's on you. The fur looks like short pile fur, maybe sable or seal, it wrinkles. It's gonna happen with shorter furs. You're going to see seams unless you're using lux or another long pile fur. 

Lemonbrat has a team of people who work on these suits, I have met several of them and they're always super friendly. You sound like an awful customer.

You provided a ref from the lion king first off.  You need consistent reference images. Looking at the main one the tail is curved. Have you seen a big cat like a panther? Their tails naturally have a curve so they don't drag on the ground.

I don't see the airbrushing you speak of, to be fair I see absolutely nothing that would suggest it was airbrushed at all. It all looks like fur and shadows of fur in the images. 

I couldn't agree with you more. I recently just bought a new suit from them (picture attached below) and they've been nothing but kind. It was a premade and we decided to get magnetic eyebrows so they had to take the head back to their shop. Since then communication has been absolutely wonderful, and the head is promptly on its way.

The commissioner of this suit needed more clearer references.

If this particular commissioner really had a problem with LemonBrat they would provide more prior detail and the MAIN BODY part of the suit and not just the head and tail issues.

The only part that I agree with in this entire beware is the head. I do agree that it does look slightly rodent like. 

I feel like it's very important to do research on not just makers, but on different furs, foams, and so fourth before commissioning a suit. I did my share of research and chose the fur I wanted used on my suit, as my maker (who shall remain nameless) had plans for a different fur option and was happy to use a different option with a slight pay increase (because of ordering). 

I wasn't planning on commenting on this beware, but I can't sit by and let a wonderful company lose potential customers. I've met the people who help create these suits and they deserve so much credit. I own quite a few LemonBrat products and that number continues to grow. I personally think they're a great company with lots of potential.

I'm not trying to attack anyone who agrees with this beware, I'm simply sharing my opinion/experience. 

- picture of the new suit below -