PLEASE no debate on wheather its right or wrong to do so!
-I'm talking bout fur from old coats or a taxidermy office, not farms
Has anyone tried sewing using real animal fur or leather? What pattern, paws etc? Did you dye it? Did you use a pelt or an old coat, etc? What type of animal? Too much tanning smell, allergies? Hand sew or machine?
I've seen ppl with real fox tails before, but never anyone with a partial or somthing of real fur.
Thinking of using pieces of fur to make paws. Would use faux leather for pads.
Hi! New member, here, but I've worked with fur in the past. Maybe I can help you avoid the mistakes I made when I was playing with the stuff. I've worked with fox, mink, rabbit, sheep, seal and bear- they all have their unique properties.
Fur is fairly easy to dye (as long as the fur was a lighter colour originally. Do not bleach fur! You'll just ruin it)- you can try two things, hair dye used for human hair, but you'll have to be careful not to soak the fur down to the root, and it's going to be difficult to remove the excess without making a mess. Comb the dye in so you use less of it, let it sit for the processing time, then lay paper towels over the fur and blot. Keep blotting, using more towels as the first get soaked, until you don't get any more dye on the towel. Dampen a sponge or some such and scrub it through the pile, removing any more dye (make sure the sponge isn't soaked). Gently rub more paper towels through the fur, then let it dry fully. Comb it out until the fur is silky again.
The other approach involves alcohol dyes used to dye leather. This will make a mess, so prepare your area with a big plastic sheet, wear gloves and open the windows (some people find leather dyes to be strong-smelling). Be certain of what you're buying! Some supposed dyes are actually paints and will gum up your fur horribly, ruining it. Ask the clerk if you aren't sure (I use Fiebing's dyes- they're cheap, decent quality, and they have a wide range of colours to choose from- ask for the yellow bottles).
Dyeing: take a piece of sheepskin (they often give you a length of wire with a scrap of sheepskin on it- you'll need something hand-sized for this, unless you're only dyeing a small amount). Dip the sheepskin dauber into the dye and gently rub it over the pile, getting in between the hairs as evenly as you can. Getting down to the root won't hurt your fur. Use the lighter colours, since the darker ones are VERY dark and, unless you're going for black, be careful in your colour choices. After you've dyed your pile, rub over it with the paper towels to remove any excess. If you're doing patterns in colour, just blot, don't rub- this stuff spreads if you do. Let it dry, then comb out.
Rubbing alcohol is useful to clean up any mess, and will get the stuff off your hands if you've stained them. You can also use the alcohol to lighten the dye-job on your fur a little on pieces dyed with the leather dyes, and with the brightly-coloured dyes used by punks and goths. So, if you want to get fur that's purple, that's one material you could use to dye it with! Note that the human hair dyes of the purple and similar bright colours will fade, after a while. The heavy ammonia-based permanent dyes won't. Nor will the leather dyes.
Fur is fairly easy to work with, but you have to be careful in the sewing. If you're doing it by hand (slow and grueling work), gently pull the hairs away from the seam as you sew- hairs will still come through your holes, but it'll be manageable. A blanket stitch is the best as it binds the seam as you go (it looks a bit like a ladder with a thread running through the whole seam with little threads going into the leather).
For machine-sewing, I'd suggest using a medium leather needle in your machine and go slow. Clean your machine often during the process, as old furs tend to shed a fair bit. One technique I've seen is to carefully trim the fur on the edges of your seam to about a fifth of an inch (yes, very narrow) from the edge of the leather. This makes it a bit easier to sew and there's less fur getting caught into the seam and it might sit better. Experiment with scraps before you try it, though.
Get a good quality curry comb, like the ones used for combing your cat or dog- you'll be needing it to comb out and smooth your creations when they're done, and they're invaluable for getting those hairs out of your seams.
Old coats- if you're getting them from second-hand shops, a few tips on checking over your possible purchase: part the fur to the skin and look at the base of the hairs- if they're coming up, or the leather is tearing under the follicles, the leather is too dry to use. I wouldn't buy it, unless the rest of the coat is in good shape.
Shedding and bare spots: these are a problem with older coats- they've been worn after all. With shedding, there isn't much you can do to save it, and it's just going to keep shedding- don't buy it. It's the same problem with dryness as above. With bare-spots, you'll often see those at certain points: at elbows, wrists and on the sides where the elbows rub. If the rest of the coat seems fine, no shedding, no tears or flaking, go for it, since you're cutting the coat up anyway.
Mothball smell: unfortunately, this is nearly impossible to remove, and it can trigger allergies in some people who smell it. I'd avoid them for this reason, and just because they reek. If the fur in question is just too gorgeous to pass up, you could try something I've heard about, but never tried. Get a plastic bag large enough to cover the coat when it's on a hanger. i mean a REALLY large bag- make sure there is room to fill it with air. There are large, thin garment bags that you can get, like the ones from the dry-cleaners. Hang the caot inside the bag so the bag trails on the floor. Open the bottom of the bag, place a cotton ball soaked in ammonia in the bottom (without the soaked cotton touching the fur), and tape it shut, making sure the bag is filled with air (it needs the airflow for this to work). Let it sit overnight. Afterwards, take it out and let it air. See how it smells.
If that doesn't work, or it only worked a little- try it again a second time. Then, after the "soak", lay the coat on a plastic bag, sprinkle baking soda into the fur, and work it in with your hands. Wrap it in the bag once more, leaving it lying flat, and let it sit for a few days.
If neither of these techniques removes the smell well enough, you may have to risk getting the fur wet. Here's what you do; mix some vinegar with lemon-water and put it into a spray-bottle. Spray the outside of the coat (just the pile) but do not soak it- most fur doesn't take water very well. Sprinkle baking soda into the fur. Let it dry (turning it every few hours- this is going to take most of the day, by the way), then give it a good brushing once it's dried. The lemon juice has oils in it that might take the smell-soaked oils off the hairs. This could leave your coat dry, though, so a light misting with mink oil will help to keep the fur conditioned: just spray it lightly on, then comb it through the hairs.
This should take care of any odour left on the fur. Moth-balls, especially the merthiolate kind, which is made of a petroleum product- that's why the smell sticks so much- it's an oily stuff and those oils mix with the natural oils in the hides, making them hard to remove without drying your fur. They smell horrible, and no-one wants to be around a fur who reeks of it. If you're a lucky fur, the coat you purchased was kept in a cedar box or closet lined with the wood. It's possibly THE best storage device for old furs, it keeps the moths away, and it smells wonderful. Get some balls of cedar-wood and put 'em in the pockets or in your closet.
Coats are made of many small and sometimes oddly-shaped pieces. Take a look at the inside and see how they're put together. If you can work around the pieces, then go, have fun. But if the original seaming is going to pose a problem with sewing- I'd suggest doing it by hand, instead of a mchine. you can control where your needle goes better when you do it by hand. Invest in a thimble that's comfortable- a leather-worker's thimble is a good item to have.
If the seams are still a problem, try making your careful cuts to get your fur pieces, then mount them down to some fabric. That way, the end-points of the seams won't ravel and fall apart- you'll have make sure to sew around the edges of every seam into the mounting fabric, though.
Fur has a grain- which I'm sure you've noticed. The pile will pose some possible design problems, so you'll have to pay close attention to which direction the fur lies before you cut. Cutting: do not use scissors! You'll end up with a lot of fluff on your floor, your person, in your tea and it'll choke your cat... Instead, use a utility or rotery blade like the ones Olfa makes (you can get these in the notions section of most fabric stores). Turn the fur pile side down and cut through the leather on the back, being sure to avoid cutting through the hairs on the other side. Score the leather carefully a few times until you go through the leather if you're not sure you can do it in one cut. Then, carefully pull apart the hide at the cut-point: the fur should separate, leaving no fuzz and you still have all the full length of the pile.
I know all of that probably sounds like a lot of effort and work, but you'll thank yourself for taking the time when you have a beautiful piece of art afterwards!
Hopefully, this helps!
