3 Photos That Will Make You Want Kate Funk's The Best Cat Book Ever

Kate Funk delves into the costume process with her three favorite photos of her cat/model, AC. Read on for a behind-the-scenes design guide on how she made some of the 100% awesome costumes featured in The Best Cat Book Ever.

1. AC the Cat as Chinese Dragon

Kate Funk

Cat enthusiast: What was your favorite costume you've ever made for AC?

Kate Funk: This was most definitely my favorite costume. Each scale was hand-cut out of different shades of red felt and then sewn onto strips of fabric. That fabric was then sewn together with an underbelly of white fabric that I stitched red stripes onto, and then I also added mint green scales to going down the back. The head was even more work. I had to glue cardboard inside each of the flames on the side of the head to make them stand up and hand stitch it all together. The sky took a long time to make as I had to hand-cut each bubble out of foam core and then spray paint all of the edges with blue glitter before attaching to the orange sky. The color combos make this photo one of my favorites, as red and mint green together is one of my favorite color combinations in the world.

2. AC as Mermaid, under the sea

Kate Funk

Cat enthusiast: Are you able to apply similar techniques to costumes usually, or is every design an entirely new process?

Kate Funk: I ended up hand-stitching each scale on the tail as they weren’t going on a flat surface, but this was a similar process to that of the Chinese Dragon. The shells were just hot glued onto some black elastic that I sewed into the shape of a bra. The background was my favorite part, though. I think it ended up looking a bit like a bad 80s painting from a hotel in the end. So perfect. I’m still shocked it turned out (and if you look closely you can see his back foot a tiny bit on the opposite side of the tail), but I love it so much. Even his hair looks perfect, kind of like it’s being tousled in the sea breeze.

3. Bob Ross: AC edition

Kate Funk

Cat enthusiast: Tell us about another costume you've made in which you had to think outside the box.

Kate Funk: The Bob Ross photo of AC proved challenging in that I needed a Bob Ross-sized painting, but don't know how to paint unless it’s with a spray paint can. I asked my brother, who is a painter, to help out and he even watched a Bob Ross instructional video while doing it to make sure it was authentic. AC’s shirt was easy enough - I just bought two of the same shirt and then put one on AC and cut the arm off the other to attach to his fake painting arm. The arm is just formed out of thin cardboard and masking tape and then covered with fake fur and hot glued onto a dowel that we painted black to blend into the background. The afro was the hardest part. I bought an adult-sized afro and had to cut chunks out of it and sew them onto a black base cap I made for AC. Then I had to give the wig a haircut so it was all the right length. In the end, I did the shoot while the local news came and filmed me. I didn’t think AC would cooperate with other people in the room, but he was surprisingly well behaved and I got the perfect shot!

Kate & AC: The Perfect Pair from The Best Cat Book Ever

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Check out Kate and AC in action, and to learn more about The Best Cat Book Ever, be sure to visit: http://www.katefunk.com/