This year, I started off the Christmas season buying myself an advent calendar from the 1,000 Islands Soap Company. It is a beautiful chest of treasures and samples with one treat to be opened every day in December. For several solid reasons that I won’t go into, I decided it was best to start opening on November 1st.
On Tuesday, November 5th, I opened box number five—I stick to only one a day, no cheating—and found a small container of anti-aging cream. My skeptical husband raised an eyebrow, but I decided to try it out and applied it generously during my morning routine.
Late in the day on that same Tuesday, I went over to Shoppers to get my flu shot. When checking in, the woman looked over my registration form and muttered “66”. I detected a surprised tone. I asked, “66 what?, What’s 66?” . She replied, still with the tone, “Your age. You’re sixty six?”.
I confirmed, “Yes, that’s right.”
She confirmed, “So you’ll want the extra strength seniors’ dose?”
Now, I admit that everything is open to interpretation, but my interpretation was that I certainly don’t look my age, could the cream have started to work?…maybe I don’t really need the anti-aging cream?
When I got home, I proudly described the encounter to my husband, who I may have described earlier as being incapable of telling even the smallest lie. His interpretation? “Maybe you better keep it up with that cream.”
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.
Let’s say I am set for faux fur for a while!
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).
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.
Clothes pins to togglesToggle reinforcement Toggle visible only on inside
I folded the fur inward around all the openings (hem, armholes, collar) so the vest could be reversible.
Leather bound arm holes, inside plaquette and hem make the vest fully 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.
Fur side out, with toasty flannel pocketsReversible to wool side out with toggle detail
I am the first to admit that in precedent times, I have been known to occasionally succumb to bouts of self-prescribed retail therapy, but during lockdown–arguably a most desperate and unprecedented of times–what was a gal to do?
Well, I decided to throw caution to the wind and try online ordering with curbside pickup. I found it wasn’t really as satisfying as an in-person session–and it led only to the need for follow-up sessions.
My downfall: fabric. I have uncountable stashes of fabrics, yarns and notions of every kind, some dating back as far as the mid to late 1970’s, but that is beside the point.
On a particularly dreary day in December, I hankered for some boiled wool. In fact, lots of boiled wool. In lots of colours. As luck would have it, while reclined on the couch arduously surfing my phone, I noticed it was deeply discounted at a local shop and was offered through curb-side pickup! I was quick to imagine it into all sorts of artistic creations.
At first, the online order option went smoother than expected. I spent and hour or so browsing and submitted my modest test order electronically. Within hours, I received a follow-up call and had a very helpful assistant walking the floors as my surrogate shopper doing her very best to describe options and colours. “Yes,” she assured me, “we have lots of boiled wool. I’m standing right in front of it.”
My excitement picked up. “Great! What colours?”
“Blue,”she said.
“What shade of blue?” I pressed.
“Hmm, kind of dark,” she offered.
Okay, I could see this wasn’t going to be the nuanced description of shade I expected. Nevertheless, I carried on. The price was so good, what did I have to lose? Might as well throw in some threads and notions for good measure.
Not three hours after placing my now hefty order, I was off to the curb for pick-up. I texted from the car, donned my mask, and skipped up to the store. The door opened a sliver and my gargantuan bag was handed out. No questions asked. Not a word spoken. Minimal human contact.
Before starting the car, I shredded open the package like a six-year old with a birthday goodie bag. Stacks of fabric! All carefully cut in .5 meter pieces! All colours! None as described. Sadly, none boiled wool.
It does contain wool, even if not boiled!
Oh well, it does contain wool, and it was colourful. I’d had an outing, and I was optimistic that I’d be able to re-vision my ideas.
In fact, I already have… In my next blog I’ll tell you about the in-person-follow-up session that led to a faux-fur frenzy, and creation of what I now call ‘the beast’!
