A friend of mine asked me a few weeks back if I would be able to modify his cloak for him. He wanted some rabbit fur attaching to the shoulders. I had never worked with rabbit fur before so thought it would make an interesting challenge.
I got my friend to put on the cloak then draped the fur over the shoulders and pined it into place. We did not want to cut he pelts so in order for the fur to lie flat it was folded over slightly at the neckline. Then the stitching began. I started working along the neckline, stitching from the front to back seam, and the down the back. After this was done the cloak was tried on again and fur re-pinned. Most of the pelts were actually very easy to sew, the fur was incredibly soft and it was easy to push the needle through the under side. So that no stitching could be seen on the fur, it attached by stitching entirely through the leather-y underside of the fur.
The only area I experienced any difficulty was with stitching down the last bit of the right side. The pelt here was incredibly tough, and ended up in me bringing in reinforcements to help pull the needle through the fabric with a pair of pliers!!
Was quite a fun change to embroidery :)
The pelts are a nice addition. I've sewn rabbit fur before and you are spot on about needing the pliers. :)
ReplyDeletethanks for this info....I'm hetting ready to do the exact same thing.
ReplyDeleteNo problems. Glad it was helpful :) I also recommend a mask of some sort, especially if you'll be working with a large amount of fur. Breathing in a mouthful of fur wasn't pleasant!
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