Working with ze Fur

I dunno why, but giving advice about making plush has me tapping into my German ancestors (who were related to Colonel Klink it appears....) Anyway.... lots of people cite working with the most tasteful of all plush making materials, fake fur as a messy and difficult process. And it is! The wonder of spinning all that acrylic fibre into thin fur like filaments and binding it to a woven back seems to come with a price and that is fur mess. But never fear dear plush newbies, there are some tips you can use to alleviate the shitstorm that is making plush with fur.

Admittedly I come from a place that is tolerant of fur, I have two Huskies and two cats, so fur is just part of the decor in our place (hmmm.. I really like the Tex Mex motif you've got going here with the fur tumbleweeds, it is tres chic!). But one tip from the fab-o Mendels Far Out Fabrics in Haight Ashbury (why do I imagine everyone in there dancing and singing about the wonder of fabric?) suggests cutting your fur pieces out from the back of the fabric with an Exacto knife. This way you avoid a lot of the fur shedding-ness. You are only really cutting the backing, not the fur, so a lot less fibres are released and spread with due abandon around your house and self.

Now being a bit of a rough and ready plush maker, such cautious measures are all a bit much for me. So if you're not prepared to commit to fur cutting Exacto zen, perhaps you can try the trick I use when using long fancy furs.

If you cut the shapes out with the only the tips of the scissor blades (need to be sharp obviously), rather than the whole blade, which tends to slice through fur, backing and everything else willy-nilly and a fur explosion of epic proportions is in the making. Using the tip allows you to slide the blades through the fur, parting the pile so as to cut less of it and focus your cut on the backing itself. It works quite well, though there is always a bit of fur pile escape. When you cut fur you tend to unravel at least a little of the woven back and let a few fibres go free.

Whilst at the amazing Bartfeld Textiles in Melbourne Australia (if I am very good in this life I will die and ascend to this store for my happy fur afterlife) I saw the guys rip the fur into lengths, like you would a cotton and was completely amazed. I wouldn't have thought it possible but apparently it is! If you are trying to cut a length of fur into smaller lengths, this might be viable to try.

Fake fur, it's tasteless and tacky and comes in all the colours vomit does, you know you want to try it......