Sewing Vloggers

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Pthewy.......Spitting and Sewing Faux Fur

Well, this sewing of faux fur is quite, well,,,,spittable! In the two hours I worked on this project yesterday I vacuumed all my clothes and the entire sewing room twice! When I started to cough it up I went into my painting gear and found a mask to wear. That really helped and I highly advise if you give this fabric a try.

This project definitely has its challenges. On my vertical seams I cut off one half inch of the seam allowance. Then I shaved the fur off with my pelican billed scissors an additional 1/8th inch. I got the best results then sewing two pieces of fur together with a straight stitch on a 1/8 inch SA. I then zigzagged to enclose all the edges. I guess this amounts to the same as serging but this needed a lot of control and I really don't think I could have pulled it off in the serger.
You can see in this pic that the left side is a clean cut. On the right side of the pencil is the 1/8th inch shaved back area. Before sewing a seam I used 1/4 inch masking tape to tape down and hold back the fur. This kept it out of the way while sewing. I left long tails on the tape and if you pull in the direction of the nap it is a clean pull. You can see also how my seams looked when done.I am definitely not an expert on this stuff and it is a definite learn as you go project. But given the amount of fluff around the studio, I am not sure when I will try this again! If anyone has a better way of doing things please let me know. I am a newbie on this one. Thanks.















I aslo did some trial runs on snap installation on the faux tooled leather. I hit Joanns today and found just what I needed. I had also been toying with the idea of bronze-y snaps on the placket. Then Summerset mentioned it on a comment and I decided to try a sample. I am really pleased with this look and it is more in the casual vein I was going for. Thanks for the inspiration, Summerset. I also played with topstitching and have decided to use a buttonhole twist and larger stitch to look more "authentic." I think I will try a few more samples of that tomorrow. This fur business is not one I will try often. It is just a real PITA and who needs to cough up furballs in the middle of the night? .......Bunny

4 comments:

  1. LOL you look like you're going to war.. but lol I guess in a way you were.
    Velvet can be a pain too.. I use to make a lot of velvet doll dresses and my poor cutting table and floor would always be covered in the fuzz..

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  2. You're very welcome - glad you at least another idea to try!

    Oh the fur, that brings back memories of making the snow white channeled mink vintage jacket! Beautiful, but messy. I didn't use tape on the seams, but after stitching, I used a couple of different hair combs with wide and fine teeth to comb out the seam so that it couldn't be seen where the fur joined. I just had that fur out last night trying to figure out what to do with the BOH collar. It didn't make the cut, so back into storage it went.

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  3. That first photo is hilarious! I can sympathize on the "fuzzies" that seem to go everywhere when sewing with faux fur. However, you seem to have it under control. I can't wait to see the finished garment.

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  4. Well, that's not a picture I expected to see! But, you do look lovely in a face mask, and it's good to be reminded that beautiful results require hard work. Keep it up, I know it will be a real head-turner when you're finished!

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