Pantyhose Popping
Many years ago I used to make my own pop shields to put in front of vocal mics, and they used to work great - better than some commercial ones that can produce a low frequency resonance when hit by a heavy pop! The great thing is that they are cheap, quick and easy to make.
So here's what you do. Yes ladies nylon pantyhose or "tights" of course - you knew that already, but there's more to it than just that! Go get a pair of those shear, black sexy numbers - no, put those fish nets down, you want the ordinary ones. No no no, take them off your head. You can't sing like that and it makes you look stupid!
Now go and find a craft shop or similar, where you can get embroidery stuff. Ask them where their embroidery hoops are (or if you are a female, just go to where the embroidery hoops are). They should have a selection of sizes, so grab a few different ones 'cos one pair of tights will be enough to make several pop shields if you need them. Or just get one that's about 4 to 5 times the diameter of your vocal mic's diaphragm. The embroidery hoop is normally made of hard wood, and consists of two concentric hoops of which the outer one has a brass screw clamp so that it can be tightened firmly around the inner one. When you are in the shop holding a pair of tights in one hand and an embroidery hoop in the other, you will instinctively know what to do in order to complete your pop shield, but I'm going to continue explaining the process any way, just for the hell of it.
What you do next is very easy. Simply unclamp the outer hoop and remove it. Lay the widest part of the tights, such as the thigh, over the inner hoop. Unless you have an extra pair of hands, I suggest you do this on a clean table surface or floor. You should now have two layers (back & front) of tights sitting on top of the smaller hoop. (if at this stage you find your self scratching your head, and referring to this post to find out what to do next, you should probably give up now, put all your recording gear on ebay, and just stick to playing the bass guitar!) Now retro fit the outer hoop over the inner hoop so that it sandwiches the excess tights material between the two hoops. Tighten the clamp slightly, but not too tight. Now the material is forming a screen, but you need to tighten it evenly like a drum skin, by pulling the remainder of the tights through between the hoops evenly all the way around. You will need to gauge how tight to make it. Basically it needs to be quite firm like a Barby dolls trampoline or something, and remain a darkish shade. If the stretched material starts becoming too light in shade, you have over tightened and the pop shield may be less effective. Once you have got the desired tightness, simply do the clamp up firmly on the outer hoop - for the benefit of bass players: if you hear a cracking noise, stop tightening the clamp immediately. If you are a bass player you will probably now want to put your new pop shield in front of an expensive studio mic, and stand back to admire your work - well done, it looks hmmm... For everyone else though, you should now cut the rest of the tights away by cutting close to the hoops with a pair of scissors! You should now have a very nice, retro looking, wood and brass rimmed pop shield, that not only looks the biz, but does the biz too!
Additional tips
I used to use a spring loaded mic clip on a second stand to hold my pop shield in front of the mic, but if you are now feeling in a really creative mood, you could get some flexy swan-neck stuff with a clamp on the end and attach it to the pop shield so that it can clamp onto the main mic stand.
Use a new, clean pair of tights. Giving someone soiled underwear to sing through is very unprofessional!
If all this messing about with women's clothing (if you're a guy) and embroidery regalia has really fired up the colour coordination cortex within your brain, you could use different coloured tights or even multicoloured ones, or perhaps those patterned ones such as leopard skin etc, and get really funky with it.
I used to have a lot of bands and artists through my old studio, and my pop shields used to get a pounding from people playing frisbee with them or just trying to poke their fingers through them out of curiosity, during moments of boredom, and they used to be surprisingly resilient to such abuse. However, if you do ladder your tights, you can simply stuff a new pair through the hoops!
The thickness of tights is measured in denier (or something). I have no idea what denier I used, but they are just the normal ones, not really thick, but kind of thin, see throughish sort of thing.