Sewing with Faux Fur

I started a little sewing project last week that involved faux fur. It has such a beautiful sheen, and nice silky feel to it.

Sewing and/or cutting it is another story altogether!

There are certain techniques to help reduce the fuzz production. For example, when cutting it out, I laid it furry side down, and used a small embroidery scissors to just cut through the backing material, not all of the hairs. That helped quite a bit.

When sewing a seam, it is desirable to not encase the hairs in the seam, because the seam should be nice and furry on the outside. This is accomplished by holding the two edges together, and then stuffing the hairs down into the seam with a knitting needle. (I used a small scissors because I didn't have a knitting needle handy.) It necessitates placing pins very close to each other, about a half-inch apart.

Even with all these precautions, the fur was really flying as I worked! After an hour or so of battling with this stuff, I looked like I had been rolling on the floor with two large, hairy dogs! Seriously--it was bad. My very next purchase was a dedicated pet hair remover that will live in my sewing area!