Fervently fighting faux fur fatigue!

Readers, where did the weekend go?  I can't speak for you, but mine was spent fondling five pounds of fuzzy faux fur.

I'm not complaining though, because miracle of miracles, this fuzz is beginning to look like a coat!



My underlayers are basically done with the exception of staying the lapel fold line and a few other tailoring tasks.  Tomorrow I'll attach the facings.

I've stitched so many hinge seams I could do it in my sleep.



My vintage Kenmore 158.141 has proven to be an indefatigable friend.  This is actually the first garment I've sewn on it and it has certainly earned its place in my sewing machine collection, not to mention it's a handy computer table too!

Up top I'm basting in my sleeves.  Once they were set, I hinge-seamed them in with my Kenmore.



Today I also cut my facings and collars.  Those will be straight stitched on.  The seam allowances on the pink rabbit fur have to be shaved.  My beard trimmer (which is also my head shaver) has been indispensable here, but it needs lots of cleaning and oiling; trimming those seam allowances is a big job and the fur is superfine and very thick and creates lots of fine fuzz.

Here's the undercollar with the seam allowances shaved down.



I also had to shave the seam allowances on the neck of the coat.



I'm still vacuuming up a storm.  Goodness knows what the neighbors think I'm up to.

And that's been my weekend, folks.  I know this is not going to be the last faux fur garment I make; I really like working with it.  It's toasty and surprisingly light, and fortunately, doesn't have to be pink!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, everybody, and happy sewing!

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Further Fur Coat Adventures!

Friends, the coat is coming along.  I cut all my shaggy white fur (sheared pink rabbit, for want of a better name) today: fronts, backs and sleeves.  Wanna see one of my sleeves -- undersleeve and oversleeve -- all sewn up?  

Ta da!



Here's the back with the two darts cut and stitched closed with a hinge seam (the dart shape is sliced out before the seam is stitched).



From the front, you'd never know there were two darts there!



Here's another dart cut out from the front.  As you can see, it produces a lot of loose hair.



I have been vacuuming like a mad person; my apartment is going to be cleaner at the conclusion of this project than at the start.  It's the only way to keep things in order.

I've been cutting my white fur, which has a suede-like bonded backing, with an X-Acto knife.  It slices only the backing and doesn't damage the fur itself.  Scissors and especially a rotary cutter would cut too much of the fur off, and since most of my pieces don't have seam allowances, I want to preserve the fur along the edges.  Ideally, seams are next to invisible.



As soon as I cut a big section, out comes the vacuum, and you have to vacuum both your garment piece as well as the edges of all the fur that's left behind.  It moves quickly but you have to stay on top of it. 

I've also been experimenting with facing edges, which will be straight stitched with a standard seam allowance.  Before stitching, however, the seam allowance on both the white fur and the spotted fur will have to be shaved down completely.



In this sample, you can see that the seam allowance of both furs is nearly hair-free.



Once the facings are turned, to keep edges sharp, I'll have to understitch the top and bottom layers of fur.  (You can't press faux fur, obviously.)  Right side up, the fur should look something like this on the lapel.  The underside will be the white rabbity fur.





The cat (leopard?) fur is weird.  I don't know if was stored improperly and got wrinkled or if it's intentionally made so that the nap in some places is somewhat whorled.  I like the look but I actually don't think it's supposed to be that way.  I tried rinsing and drying a small piece, however, and it still had those whorls -- you can sort of see them in the upper right hand corner of this photo.  Either way, I can live with it.  



Friends, that's all for today.  Needless to say this project is taking up the lion's share of my weekend but it's also a fun adventure and I'm learning a lot.  As with so many things, tackling it has demystified the process, and Kenneth King's instructions have proved invaluable.  But you MUST vacuum constantly!

Happy Saturday, everybody!

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70's Faux Fur Coat MUSLIN + Tools at the ready!

I just finished my muslin, readers, and that little voice inside is already asking, Do we really have to do this all over again in faux fur?
I wasn't going to make a muslin at first, but since most of the major seams will be done hinge-seam style (more about that later), as per Kenneth King's instructions, I won't be cutting seam allowances.  I wanted to make sure this coat was going to fit.  Thankfully, it does, and there's a very comfortable amount of ease.  I made this with some cheap, coarse purple cotton I had in my stash.

From the back, with undercollar up.



Collar down.  I removed the back pleat.



Straight front without belt.



I only added the facing to the right side (which you see folded on top); on the left side you're just looking at the front piece only, but you get the idea.  The only challenge was the notched collar -- if you've ever made one you know why: all those seams intersecting at that one little dot and all the careful clipping of seam allowances required.

I'm uncertain about the length the coat should be.  Believe it or not, this is the intermediate length -- it could have been a maxi coat.  I do love this pattern!



Meanwhile, I've amassed all my recommended tools, face mask included -- you don't want to inhale all those hair fragments and dust (Kenneth King recommends using one) -- and started experimenting with the fur.  Below I am also armed with my hair clippers, which I'll use to trim seam allowances on the collar and facings; those won't have hinge seams.



Here are some of my other tools, including awl (that pointy, pin-like thing), afro pick and assorted combs, and cold tape.
 

The cold tape is a sturdy, highly adhesive fabric tape that's used to stay fur seams.  It will be added to the top seam edges before I stitch.  I found a roll at Greenberg & Hammer, the notions store, before they closed.



A basic seam is stitched right sides (i.e fur sides) together, with the reinforced seam on top.  Before stitching, you use your pick to push as much fur as you can into the seam.

Then you zigzag along (falling slightly off) the edge, like overcasting, and gently pull the two sides apart so that the seam lies flat.  ( I'm doing project this on my Kenmore 158.141, the one in the table.)



After a little combing, the seam is invisible from the front.



If you don't push the fur out of the seam first, you end up with something like this.  Bad.



BTW, a regular straight stitched seam, without any trimming at all, would look like this -- a mess. 



Of course, another necessary tool is a vacuum cleaner.  Working with this fur creates a lot of loose hair along cut edges.  Here's a seam allowance I shaved with my clippers.  See all that hair?  This is not a project for the anal compulsive.





My fur, while not the shaggiest out there, is much trickier to deal with than the plush fur in my Salvation Army coat from yesterday.  Look how much shorter the nap is on that -- more like polyfleece.



Friends, if truth be told, I'm a little anxious about getting started but I'm trying to breath deeply (through my face mask, of course) and relax.  It's not sable, after all.

A happy Friday to you all!

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Faux Fur Fabric Haul and MORE!

OK, readers, what would you say if I told you I went to the Salvation Army yesterday ("Family Day" -- 50% off most clothes) and found a terrific blue faux fur peacoat in my size for $4.99? 

Put on your sunglasses, and behold!

Psychedelic plush lining!

I looooove this coat; and you know how I feel about a bargain.  Now lest you think this means I won't be making my own faux fur coat, think again.  I'm going to use this one for inspiration and construction guidance.  This coat was very simply put together, which gives me confidence.



Did I mention it even has the union label?



Now with this blue coat as a backup, and on a bit of a faux fur frenzy, I returned to the Garment District.  I couldn't face the incense (and the chaos) at It's a Material World, and I remembered that the other place with an excellent selection of faux fur was the dreaded Nahir, at 242 West 39th Street.  I've mentioned Nahir (which some think should be called Nadir due to its surly owner and questionable prices) before, but I've had success here in the past.  Since I was on the south side of 39th Street, I checked some of the other fabric stores there that I generally don't go into, and I couldn't find faux fur for less than $20/yd, sometimes even more.  I'm talking about heavyweight, quality stuff, not cheap craft fur.

I spent at least half an hour in Nahir.  Their fur was $15/yd but when I told them I needed to walk around the block and think, they immediately lowered their price to $12 (This is a good strategy, imo).  I made my purchase and that was that. 

Now let me say that some of the fake fur at Nahir is gorgeous -- deep plushy, luxurious-looking minks, leopards, lynx, Persian lamb etc., in all kinds of fantasy colors.  But I wanted something a little....tacky.  

Voila!
 

This fur is a cross between sheared rabbit and a ratty old bathrobe and I love it.  It has a deep pile and a pink undercoat.  The best part of all is that the wrong side is bonded to what looks like ultrasuede rather than just your standard knit. That gives me a lot of options, like doing the sleeves suede-side out, for example. 



For the collar, and perhaps the cuffs, I went for something more exotic.  I don't know my ocelot from my snow leopard, but this fur, also with a pink cast, looked suitably over the top.





So here's my basic palette:





In my dreams I pull off something like this, but I may just keep it simple first time out.



This is the basic look I'm going for.



Last night I cut out my pattern, McCall's 2979, and today I'll experiment with seams, right sides, wrongs sides, etc.  As I mentioned yesterday, I want this done by next Tuesday, so Cathy can wear it to a Valentine's Day party.

I'm good to go, friends.

Any thoughts about which side of the -- let's call it sheared rabbit -- should be outside and which inside?  Do you think my choice is "pimpy" (I hate that term but I think you get what I mean) enough?  I hope so.

Ready, Set, Faux!

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The Coat Project: friend or faux?

The latest on the Seventies coat saga:  After digging around in the Garment District yesterday, I have decided to go ahead and make my coat, and -- tentatively -- to make it in faux fur.

There is so much faux fur to be had, readers, but I found the widest selection on 39th Street at what used to be H&M and is now called It's a Material World (!).  Parenthetically, they say they're under new management but it sure looks like the same old lousy management to me, as well as same staff, same stock, etc.  This is one of those stores that's always a mess and stinks of cheap incense.  I counted more than a dozen sticks burning there yesterday and I could hardly breathe.  The fur is upstairs (it's a two-level storefront space) and the incense smells even stronger there.  That said, they have dozens of bolts of faux fur, some of it absolutely wild and wacky and totally fun.

What I hate about this place is that the prices seem random.  Is the faux fur really $20 a yard, or might it be $15 if I made a fuss, or spoke to a different salesperson, or had big breasts?  I don't like to bargain in fabric stores, do you? 

I also saw some faux fur at Chic Fabrics and a few other places on 39th St. (even Kashi at Metro sent me to 39th St. -- he hates stocking the stuff since it takes up so much space), but nothing can compare to the quantity at It's a Material Word, so I guess that's where I'll make my purchase.

If I do the whole coat in fur (and not just the front facings and collar), three yards should do it.  I have some fabulous instructions about working with faux fur from an online class at Pattern Review that Kenneth King led a few years ago.  I have all the recommended supplies, including cold tape (this was one of the mystery notions I quizzed you on last summer; nobody guessed it right), electric razor, wig brush, and afro pick.

King recommends using a pattern with a self facing in front, rather than a separate facing.  You want to eliminate as many seams as you can and keep it simple.  My coat pattern (I'm leaning toward the classic McCall's 2979 from 1971) has separate facings and a notched collar.  I spent some time yesterday looking at photos of faux fur coats for sale on Etsy.  Most have notched collars, the best looking ones anyway.  I think (hope) I can handle it.

I love this one with the pelts running horizontal beneath the waistline.  A faux fur Seventies coat can't be too busy and ideally mixes a few different furs and has a fake leather belt at the very least. 



Here are a few more gems in the tacky/fabulous category.   The faker, the better!









Other than these notched collar coats that look like something straight out of Superfly, the other popular style is similar to my Miss Vogue Pattern (8144).



OK, so this coat is listed as unisex and the guy is hot, but is this not a man in a woman's coat in your opinion?  (For sale on Etsy here.)



I also love this version -- I think it's by Jordache or Sassoon, or one of those classic Seventies/early Eighties brands one associates with what were originally called French (and later designer) jeans.







More Seventies-era faux fur coat pics here.

Now I just need to get my energy up.  Michael and I are actually invited to a Valentine's Day theater-related party next Tuesday, so if I could get this done by then, that would be great.  I'm a little nervous about this faux fur thing, I won't lie to you.  I've worked with thick polyfleece but this is a different ballgame.

Anybody worked in faux fur before?   Did you have to vacuum constantly?  Did you wear a disposable face mask?  What were the results like?  I'd love to know!

Have a great day, everybody!

PS -- Our cabaret show, Noah's Very Unusual Insight got reviewed!  (Read it here.)

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