Fixin’ My Fur

[hsifeng]

Last weekend I got a chance to hang out with friends at the Ventura Flea Market. There were several ‘oh mah gawd, why ain’t I rich?’ items of interest that I had to pass on. But I got to take home one very nice deal.

This lovely lady came home for $18 cash on the barrel. She is in need of repair (several long tears) but her length is remarkable as was the price tag. I am thinking of using her for either my own Schaube or for one for my hubby. 

From the translations of the Textiler Hausrat that I have read (thank you Katherine!) and a number of images from various sources, it appears that both men and women had fur lined Schaube in this period. Of course, I am not intending to line the entire garment in fur (both for heat and for expense, plus I would rather minimize my use of little fuzzy creatures as decoration in places where they don’t show anyway); instead I am just using the fur at the collar and perhaps the cuffs if I need to cut the garment down any. 

So – on to the real question: How to repair the damage to this item in such a way as to reinforce the overall strength and prevent further tears. I am curious to see if anyone who is reading this post has experience with repairs of this sort?

The stole has three layers, the fur itself, a satin liner and a mid-layer of cotton net that appears to have the fur tacked to it at irregular intervals. My instinct in dealing with this repair runs in two directions:

#1: Simply run a wide herring bone hand stitch over the fur and into the net & satin at the points where the garment is torn. This should reinforce the tears and spread the strain on these points of the garment. Also, the wide stitches should be able to be disguised into the fur with some gentle brushing (to bring the hair up and over the threads). Since I don’t give a hoot about the stitches showing on the satin side (it will be recovered in wool before being placed on the Schaube regardless), stitching through all layers should be easy.

However, this will not prevent *other* tears from starting in this older piece. On to another idea:

#2: I could remove the satin and net and then cut a new piece of light canvas or muslin to the shape of the current liner. This could then be interfaced with an iron on stabilizer directly to the back of the fur piece. 

Now, I don’t know how the fur will react to an iron, much less to interfacing – so any pointers or advice here would be greatly appreciated!

Whatever happens, I will let you know once I get started on this project…

I am hoping to update my post on points & lacing soon (I stopped by Meg's shop the other day and met with

sstormwatch who loaned me a lovely book on lucet cords from Lacis that I will be digging into this weekend...).

EDITED on 4/4/08: Spoke with sstormwatch at length last night while searching my library for images of short skirts over long skirts (*that aren't/don't appear to be aprons) - another idea is using a spray on adhesive to add a muslin backing to the overall garment. I will need to check the packaging on a number of interfacing/adhesive products to see which are leather safe.

 

 

 

Comments

[dravon.livejournal.com]

Ooooh! Nice find!!!

I know nothing about fur -- storage, repair, or working with it. One reason why I didn't buy any fur at the Vintage expo was because the teacher (the LACMA textiles curator chick) mentioned in passing that it was expensive to store fur coats and such because of the climate controls requirements. arooo?

Prompted by your purchase and the hope that someday I too may luck out and find something half as grand, started poking around to see what I could find. EGAD! The Fur Information Council of America a list a yard long just on how take care of the thing. eeeek. But perhaps the FICA site might yeild someting you can use in terms of care (http://www.fur.org/poen_abou.cfm?sect=care) and repair, or in this particular case considerations for crafting with fur (http://www.fur.org/poen_abou.cfm?sect=craf).

Someday maybe I'll have the skill to tackle such a project without learning from too many "oopsies" which render the final product unusable. heh. Though I do look forward to learning what you find out about working with and repairing fur items. Congrats on the find!