Sewing Terminology and Techniques - http://www.loudzen.com/users/jessica/precostuming/jargon.html

More on sewing terms - http://www.hutchal.clara.net/curtains/glossary.htm

From: Robert C King, responding to someone about bodysuit seams

Samantha's fur body suit is just full of curved seams, darts, and a few
spots where we pray the fur has enough stretch.

darts?

Yup - one way to add that 3rd dimension to 2D cloth

A Dart is a construct where you cut out some of a piece of cloth (usually a wedge shaped piece, hence the name - think Isoceles triangle) and then sew together the two matching sides to create a shallow cone-like shape.

http://www.sew-whats-new.com/sewinglessons/skirt/b-skirt-diagram4.jpg

A Pleat is like a Dart except that you don't cut out the material in the wedge to be removed, you fold it over on itself.

A Gather is a “non-linear” seam. I'll explain by example. Imagine you have two strips of cloth 10 inches long. If you sew them together normally, you get a straight, flat seam 10 inches long. Now imagine you have one strip of cloth 10“ and one strip 14”. If you sew them together so that the ends come out together with a 10“ seam, you have created a gather - the longer side will have little ripples in the seam where you have scrunched it down evenly to make 14” fit in 10“.

An Ease is like a Gather but less extreme - like sewing a 10” strip to an 11“ strip. The ripples don't show.

A curved seam lets you add and subtract fabric to create curve also, but the more seams, the more work.

Well, since I've gotten to this point in making my own furry body (far
less detailed than yours, though, since this is my first time), I've got
some questions about this whole tailoring to fit thing. I made a bodysuit
out of white cotton fabric, figuring I'd just tailor that the way I wanted
and then use it as a pattern for the fur. Except I realized when I was
finished that I had no idea how to go about doing things like making
sleeves narrower. Rather than insist that you recount every last detail
of the process you went through, I guess I'll just ask if there are any
books you know of out there that talk about how to do this? I've seen one
book by Singer on alterations, but I haven't been able to find it anywhere
lately. Any other suggestions?

Maybe you can alter that. I'm assuming you used a commercial pattern. Most “normal” clothes don't hug the arms skin tight. Can't you just pin it down smaller, invert, and sew a new seam under the arm?

Ultimately what you want to do is called “draping” - essentially creating your own pattern. Draping is an art. You can probably find books on the subject if you go to a major fabric/sewing store (the kind that sells skads of patterns).

But you just can't drape yourself. You have to find a friend with the skill.

If you want I can TRY to give you a verbal description of the general technique BJ used. In brief, you start pinning with the shoulder centerline and neck seam and “drape” the muslin piece until it will not lay “flat” against the curve of the body - then you decide whether to:
a. If covering a convex part of the body, grumble and identify locations to dart, then cut the piece a few inches beyond.
b. If covering a concave part of the body, curse under you breath, cut the piece and start with a new piece of muslin. (curved seam)
c. If doing a concave-convex (eg. crotch seam or underarm), curse loudly while trying to bring multiple seams together without creating a gnarled mess.

Sorry, I got a little less than serious there. :) I just can't summarize in a few paragraphs what requires an entire book and practice.

(Samantha's butt has independent cheeks and that produced what BJ referred to as “The crotch seam from hell”)

– Robert “Muslin, foam women's body parts, and pins everywhere…” King

From: Silent Red
Subject: Smocking

Smocking is an old technique, I'm not sure how it was done originally but nowadays the technique is to tack the material onto a length of stretched out elastic. When the elastic is released the material puckers (for the turtle costume the effect was like wrinkles on its legs). It's kind of hard to explain but if you saw it you'd recognize the technique. :>