Tuesday 5 February 2013

Sewing with Fur - Part 1 Cutting out.


 I've had a piece of fur sitting in my stash for about 3 years, it was a remnant and never knew what to do with it. Was going through my pattern stash recently, found a pattern with Yoga accessories.  Simplicity 3583 which I think is now discontinued.  Thought I'd make a Zafu, a meditation cushion. 
 First I glued the pattern pieces to card, used Manilla folders, needed to trace around the pattern on the back of the fur fabric.  I knew I wanted to make more of these so wanted the pattern to last.  Used a glue stick, put a stripe of glue onto the card, then smoothed the pattern onto it, More glue stripes and smoothing until the entire pattern is glued.  The first one I did, glued the whole thing and the pattern didn't smooth out as much as I liked.    The pattern pieces will no longer fit in envelope, but I laid out the top and bottom pattern pieces so that they encorporated the fold of the folder.  They will fit into an A4 envelope for storing.


 Used a fine Sharpie to trace around the edges of the pattern piece.  Don't forget to transfer markings.  I did mine using a different colour texta, not shown, the black design on the fabric made it hard looking for black markings. 
 When ready to cut out, use small, pointy, sharp scissors.  I used the bigger ones in the pic.  Do not just cut, what is needed is tiny cuts, mere millimetres long.  Only want to cut the backing and not the fur.

With the point of the scissors under pile of the fur, take tiny snips, no longer than 5 mm, shorter if possible.  It takes a while but it can be done.  Can even use a blade to cut the backing, I tried with a box cutter but the blade wasn't sharp enough.  The scissors were quicker.  

With the seam cut, pull apart the fabric, should not haave any cut fur.  In the picture the pile is running downwards, when cut correctly there will be a fringe of fur beyond the cut edge.  On the top edge of the pattern the fur runs away from the cut, leaving no fringe.  

Even with correct cutting there will be loose fur, you and your surroundings will be covered with fur.  You will be asked if you've been cuddling a cat.  Don't try to shake it off, it just spreads and in my case straight into my mouth. Pitoohey.

Coming soon will be the actual sewing, first time have sewn such thick fur.  Could be interesting and perhaps entertaining, though I envisage lots of this @#$# being uttered. 

Friday 1 February 2013

It's been so long since I've posted here, Christmas come and gone, a whole new year.  Christmas wasn't fantastic for me, was sick with a bug  over it.  At least was well for New Year, as boring as it was.

Have never really liked the week between Christmas and New Year, but then January kicks in and is horrible too.  So glad it's over, hot horrible January, hottest on record or was it hottest since the 1930's?  I can be grateful though that the terrible bushfires and floodings that so many endured have not affected my family.

Not much crafting has been done, I did make some gift bags for work colleagues.






Did finally finish the knitting part of a cardigan, took me weeks and weeks to do.  Now I have to find one of the fronts so I can stitch it together.


Gone back to crocheting, so much qucker to do.  A pattern from a magazine, 100% Bamboo yarn and the wrong size hook, I think I'm doing well.  No idea if or who the finally product will fit, the pattern only has 2 sizes, decided simply by the hook size.  3.5 or 4 mm, I picked up the 4.5 by accident and when I noticed after a few rows was not going to undo it.  Don't even know if I have the right amount of yarn, this has been in my stash for about 3 years. 

So glad it's February, happy February.  4 more weeks of Summer then the lovely cool weather will be back

I shouldn't dislike January so much, it's my birthday month. 

Also bought a new fridge, our old fridge has been barely hanging on for the past couple of years, there's been times we thought it was dead but it struggled back to life.  Had to put up with freezing stuff that shouldn't be frozen, defrosting stuff that should be.  The last couple of weeks it's incontinence became an issue, there was always a towel on the kitchen floor soaking up leaked water.

Anyway the new one arrived yesterday and in true January style was the wrong one, right model, wrong colour.  I don't like stainless steel, we ordered white.  Stainless steel arrived, I assumed that Dh had got that colour because it was the only one available, seeing as we got it from a Seconds wharehouse.  He called the store, they have offered to get it returned if we aren't happy.  It wasn't their fault, because the manufacturer had labelled the box as white.  We just need to confirm tomorrow.  I was hoping it would grow on me, nope still don't like stainless steel.   I am happy with it's performance, it's so quiet and things cool and freeze where they should.