Faux Fur

[Rich1988]

Hi Everyone

I'm thinking of ordering some faux fur to try working with (namely because it's cheaper than Mohair) and just wondering what everyones experiences of it were. Is it easy to work with? How does it differ from Mohair? Do I use it in the same manner?

Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks.
Richard
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[shebob bears]

Hello Rich,

My experience of faux fur is that unless it is on a woven backing it tends to stretch during stuffing. The head in particular stretches and just goes on stretching as we normally stuff the head very firmly.

A woven backed faux fur tends to be not much cheaper than mohair, whereas the knitted backing is very much cheaper.

When using the knitted backed faux fur, I have marked out the pattern pieces and then painted all the pieces with fabric stiffener and left it to dry completely prior to cutting out. It helped to control the strtetching at the stuffing stage, but the stiffener made the sewing rather difficult.

I must admit you can't beat the real thing - Mohair. But try the faux fur and please let's see your next creation.

Cheers,
Sheila :6013:

[dutchy.bears]

You could try using some non stretch iron on interfacing on a knitted faux fur backing this stops it from streching. Just oron it on to the back of your material and bobs your uncle. This was a tip I picked up on www.sassybearsandfabric.com she has all kinds of fabrics with strecth for miniture bears but recomends using non stretch interfacing.
Hope it helps

Annette

[kynthia]

i've only used faux fur so far so i do not know how easy mohair is. i tend to choose fabrics that have less stretch to it. for those with stretchy backings, i using the interface that annette mentioned.

oh, try to avoid velvet. it's extremely stretchy & frays like crazy. i used it for a bear once and it was a disaster.. :eek:

[baildon bears]

I tryed faux fur a while ago, I found it really hard to work with, yes it is much cheaper but I think you pay for the fact it takes longer to make a bear, you will have fur every where and I found it really hard to sculpt the face, some of the really good bear makers who use faux fur make it look so easy and are so talented at it, it takes real skill to it and get good results, saying that you will never know untill you try, its worth having ago. Hannah

[Rich1988]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I bought some cheaper mohair to keep me going until payday in the end but I hadn't thought to use interfacing so may give it a go just to see how I get on. Will let you know once I do. :)

Richard
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[LisaAP]

Hi Richard,

I love to work with mohair but sometimes faux fur is just the best choice for the job. I work with whatever suits the animal the most. If it's faux fur with a stretchy backing then so be it, I'll work round it if I need to even if it means the project taking twice as long.

The best quality faux fur can be just as expensive as mohair, but it's the nicest/easiest to work with . The backing has very little stretch and the fur is well rooted (is that the correct term? lol). Tissavel and Tyber brands are my favourites but they can be hard to get a hold of in the UK. The cheaper faux furs tend to have backing that stretches, some more than others, and can need to be lined, I use musliin for the job. Also be warned the fur goes everywhere, so expect to find bits of it all over the house especially when you are trimming the seams. :p

Faux fur is super soft, strokeable and realistic so is worth the extra effort reqired to work with it IMO. :)

Regards

Lisa

[Africanbear]

I started off making bears with faux fur. I made about 40 faux fur bears before I used mohair. I must admit it was difficult to work with mohair then. Now I enjoy working with mohair. :6034: