Fun with tippits!

[callistotoni]

"Fun" here being defined in that We Learn By Doing sort of way. :-/

Spent the weekend with nightbocce tracing Tudor Tailor patterns and working on my rabbit fur tippits. By 1:30 AM this (Monday) morning I was very unhappy with the first one and decided that I needed to walk away from them for a while.

So here's some Lessons Learned for any of you that may want to make rabbit fur tippits in the future:

-- The fur itself should match in terms of fur length and fluffiness. I bought a dye lot of 9 skins from Moscow Hide and Hair described as being "good craft quality" for a bit less than $40. They came and some were a bit more yellow-white than the others, and some were more ermine-like in the smoothness of the fur and some were more fluffy. I matched up the skins according to color. But the fluffy-factor was not as matchable and turned out to be a much bigger deal visually than I thought it would be.

-- I forgot the obvious, namely, that fur is going to appear visually wider than the skin you measure and cut. So when I got the first tube turned it was too wide. At this point is was late, so I couldn't make up my mind if it was really too wide or not and went looking for pictures. Coming back to it today I decided that it was really too wide and I'm going to have to re-cut and resew. Bummer.

-- Fur/skin is funny. I *thought* I had sewn a straight line, but when it got turned it was all wobbly and unacceptable. Turned it again and re-sewed it and it was still kinda wobbly. But one reason for that uneveness of line is the differences in fur fluffyiness. Sigh.

-- I did trim my seam allowences of fur, but the joins are still noticable. Again, a big factor here is the differences in the fur fluffiness between skins.

-- On nightbocce's suggestion, I handsewed some thin cotton batting into the tippits to make them softer and less angley-crunchy when folded. This was a good idea, but about half of that stitching was a waste of time since I have to make them thinner. Poosers. Should have checked that width issue better before doing all that handwork.

-- I had thought that if I made the tippets as tubes and that if I put the seam on the side it would be less noticiable than if the seam were at center back. Now I'm not so sure that was the best choice. Because the seam, even though I am drawing and sewing a straight line on the skin, is coming out wobbly (see above) I wonder if it would have been better to have the seam center back to make the sides of the tippets seem as straight as possible. But the way I tacked in the batting commits me to having the seams on the side at this point. And, again, it may be that the differences in fur quality would show up anyway. I'll have to try it another way when I have an extra $40 to buy some more rabbit fur (and the time to sew another pair of tippets). Oh well, learning by doing is good, and both 14th C stuff and sewing with fur is still pretty new to me.

I had hopes of finishing these tippets before our 14th C playzone this Saturday at Mists Coronet, but with these setbacks I don't think that's happening. Bummer.

Oh, and on another front, I woke up sick this morning. I suspect I'm fighting either a sinus infection, an ear infection, or a tooth infection because my left jaw through inner ear area is sore and weird feeling, *and* I feel like total crap. I managed to get out to the barn to run Brandee around in the roundpen and ride. We had some Mom-testing in the roundpen so being P O'd and adreneline kept me going ("Oh no young lady, we will have none of that! And you just earned yourself an hour ride where we *work*!"). But once I got her put away and sat down to take my boots off I was comatose. Drove straight home and went to bed. Got up a little while ago to eat, and now it's back to bed. I made a dentist appointment, but they can't see me until Thursday. If I wake up feeling this way tomorrow morning I'm going to see if I can't get a doctor's appointment. Blah. Double blah because J/S is coming This Thurday evening -- yay!!! Jeeze I hope I'm better by then. :-/

Comments

[etaine-pommier.livejournal.com]

Yeah - matching fur length and color is an adventure.

What kind of a seam are you using to join the skins? I've found using a blanket stitch to join them (on the leather only, being careful not to catch the fur) works well to get a smooth join.

In modern fur coats, wherever there is a fold there is usually a strip of twill tape on the fold itself, and the fur is edge-joined to it. This keeps the edges from getting too bulky to fold neatly, especially on dense furs like fox (or rabbit.)

[joycebre.livejournal.com]

in my fur sewing class we were taught to use a zigzag stich on the very edges, while pushing the fur as far back into the seam as possible, so you only catch the leather not the fur. I use a blung needle to do this while sewing the seam.(because we were taught to do it by machine. If I were to do it by hand, I'd do roughly the same thing, still pushing the fur away from the seam.
then when you turn, use the blunt darning needle to pull any bits of fur out of the seam. The pieces should be almost butted together. The fur should hide the joined seam.
No pressing.

[joycebre.livejournal.com]

can't edit my comment, darn it. I hate posting before coffee. Anyway, when you zigzag, the needle goes off the edge of the fur. So it's only about a 1/8" seam allowance.
If the length of the hairs on the fur is whats causing the fluff difference, you can trim or shear the fur a little. When joining furs, it's best not to use straight lines, a diagonal line lays better. And when you cut, make sure to lift the leather with the scissors, so you cut only the skin, not the fur. (tho fur flying is inevitable.)

[callistotoni.livejournal.com]

I considered handsewing (overcast) but decided that I just don't have time for that long a seam. So I did pretty much what Gianetta said, namely, a very tiny zig-zag on my machine, pushing the fur to the inside. I also trimmed the seams of fur (which is something I learned making teddy bears. :-) ).

One thing I did wrong, though, was I wasn't careful enough about having the needle go to the outside, off of the skin. That's part of my problem, I'm sure.

[callistotoni.livejournal.com]

Good to know about the diagnal line joining. Something to try on the next set of fur tippets. Also, I wasn't careful enough about getting the needle off the fur with the zig zag stitch. Oh well, We Learn By Doing...