Off to the fabric store to get some 'faux fur' and found some excellent 60% off pieces in the clearance bin. I bought 18 inches off a 3 feet roll. Then off to the local craft store to buy 4 sheets of 'plastic canvas' in 12 x 18 inch size ,'7 count', and a large pack of the smallest zip fasteners I could find. Because I never go into a craft store, it took quite a while to find it, but it will be there somewhere. You'll also need a ruler, sissors, sharpie pen, and hot glue gun. These deadcats are designed to fit around a foam microphone windscreen, so if you don't have one for your mic already, you'll need to buy one for each mic. Total cost, not including foam windshields, was maybe $2.00 or $3.00 at most per deadcat. My total project cost was about $20 CDN and I made 4 deadcats, and I have materials left over to make another 4-6 units. Pretty good, eh!
Determine the diameter of the plastic canvas 'frame by trial and error. You want it snug enough that it doesn't easily fall off the mic, but not so tight that it is difficult to put on and off. Fasten the sides with some of those zip ties and cut off the ends, and you have a nice little cylindrical 'frame'.
The length is determined by your mic - I chose to make mine 6 inches long.
Now you'll cut out an end piece. For my frame, I found that a soup can was just the right size to make an excellent cutting template.
Here's the finished end piece ready to be attached to the cylinder
Thread the zip ties, cinch them tight, and cut off the extra.
Now you've got a completed 'frame' and you're ready to apply the faux fur material.
Cut fabric to approximate size - you'll trim it once it's glued up, so no need to be perfectly precise.
Start with applying the hot glue to the long straight seam first, then apply glue to one rim. When you get close to the seam where you started, mark and cut the fabric. Leave it a bit oversized - remember you can always trim the excess, but you can't make it longer! Glue the final long seam to the plastic canvas, not to the fabric. Trim excess, if necessary.
This is what your bead of hot glue looks like. Make sure you don't go too stingy.
You want enough glue so that it oozes into the canvas and makes a nice mechanical connection. After you've glued the final long seam, you'll go back and sneak a bead of hot glue between the canvas and the fabric around the circumferance of the cylinder at the non-glued end.
Once again, that can of soup came in really handy as a marking template. Just be aware that the can is roughly the size of the canvas 'frame', so you'll need to over size the top piece by about 1/4 inch so that it's big enough to cover the fur. Otherwise, it'll look ugly - don't ask how I know :-)
On the BACK of the cap piece, apply a bead of hot glue just inside the marked line around half of the cap piece, flip it and press it in place. Then apply glue to the other half and press it in place.
You'll probably want to run another bead of hot glue around the loose flap of material, just to tidy it up. But voila, your deadcat is ready for use.
I found that I was able to store 3 deadcats nicely side-by-side in a large clear plastic salad greens container to keep them organized and protected.
Another note - the deadcat leaves the mic open and unprotected at the back, which could be a problem if the wind was coming from the back of the mic. A bit of foam backer rod might be a good precautionary measure.
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