Creating the Beast

After the disappointment of my curb-side pickup, I knew I would soon need an in-person top up of retail therapy and it wasn’t long coming.

I thought if I could get one, maybe two, pieces of faux fur trim, I could whip up a quick hat or bandeau, using some of my newly acquired woolen fabric pieces. A short, cautious shopping trip could be beneficial.

I admit I do prefer real fur, but it is increasingly difficult to find and a bit cost prohibitive. There are some very ‘real looking’ faux furs on the market, but faux fur is definitely not something you buy without feeling it and seeing it; checking the colour, the luster, the softness. I certainly wouldn’t want anything that looks too faux!

These were reasons enough to send me off to the shop.

Long story short, modern faux are surprisingly delicious. Soft, silky, fluffy, luxurious even. In less than thirty minutes I was able to amass a very large bagful of irresistible trims, and pelts.

Now to create! I was picturing a toasty warm vest. Fur exterior, woolen interior. A vest would be quick and easy, right? Let this be the lesson: nothing is ever as quick, nor as easy, as you expect. Creating, as I’ve said before, takes time…oodles of time.

Here are a few more tips for successful creating:

• Make a pattern. It is always worth it in the end to measure properly and make a pattern. This will make good use of all the home delivery wrapping papers you have saved.
• Try to think ahead of the logistics: will it have closure fastenings? will it have pockets? do you have enough fabric? do the weights and textures of all the fabrics work together?
• At a certain point, you have to jump in and make the first cut. What is the worst that can happen? (It’s not like you don’t have more fur!)

I’ll try to speed it up for those of you who are anxious to see the final piece.

I did make a pattern, and chose my only 1 meter length of heavy, long-haired fur. Determined to use the non-boiled wool from my stash, gold went well with the fur, but having only .5m I had to supplement it with .5m of faux leather for the lining and trim. The colour was a perfect match and I figured, once committed to faux why not go all the way?

I had decided on pockets, but didn’t have enough fabric, so this is where it got interesting. I decided to use the sizable bag of onion skins I’d been saving in the bottom of our fridge to try onion skin dying on a recycled, old, cotton flannel bag.

• Boil onion skins for about an hour (more skins = darker colour).
• Strain out the skins.
• Put the dark liquid in a pot large enough to allow your fabric to move around.
• Wet the fabric (with water) and then add it to the dye pot.
• Boil for about an hour, or until it is slightly darker than your desired colour.
• Rinse thoroughly with cold water.
• Keep the leftover dye for one or two days in case you come up with anything else you want to dye–after that you’ll have to toss it out (it is basically onion water).
• That’s it! This step was easy–but not quick.

I decided I did want some closures and hunted around the house for something the right size until I came up with the clothes pegs to toggles idea.

• Cut the pegs to the desired length, and drill holes for your thread or elastic (useful to have a carpenter on hand for this step).
• Throw the toggles into the left over dye bath for an hour or so, and they will be the perfect colour!
• The thinner, lower parts of the pegs worked best for this piece, but I’ve kept the upper pieces for a future project.
• Attach the toggles with some elastic cord to allow leeway in buttoning.
• Sew some reinforcement on your faux leather to add strength.
• Tie the toggles only to the inside so they don’t show when vest is worn fur-side out.

I folded the fur inward around all the openings (hem, armholes, collar) so the vest could be reversible.

Voila! Not quick, and not necessarily easy, but the Beast is born. I am now the proud owner of a toasty, full-length, reversible, faux fur vest, which only took about 100 hours, and should last 100 years, or maybe more. It is faux after all.