Advice from a Singer Sewing Manual

Hello everyone: Just had to share this with you. A very dear friend of mine and fellow artist sent this to me this morning... It is actually out of a Singer Manual... someone wrote this... HAHAHA. Love it! Hope you enjoy it too!

Fur Friday - What went wrong

Hello everyone

Well... I just couldn't walk away without knowing if it was something I did wrong or what so I wrote to my friend Nancy in a private message. I am delighted, well as delighted as one can be when finding out why all that time and effort was down the tubes, but delighted none the less to have found out what went wrong!

It was not the stitch length but instead it appears my coat had DRY ROT! You can not see it or smell it but when you stitch it the coat becomes powdery and falls away from the seams! AH HA moment! So in knowing this now I feel I might try again with a different coat as that might have also been the reason why I was sneezing so much! Powdery dusty leather microbes were most definitely floating into my nose...eeewwww! But hay, I might still have a shot at making a fur bear yet!

So what I would like to suggest to you all is this... before you spend all that time on cutting out the entire bear and lining it, make a test swatch from a few different areas on your coat and do a lining and seam! Just small pieces so you can be sure your coat does not have DRY ROT! THEN go ahead if the coast is clear and your seams stay together!

Thankfully I have not given away my other coats yet! And thankfully and regretfully I now have something plausible to tell the lady who gave me the coat as to what happened. I am learning a lot in this process so am grateful for my trials in that sense but it would be nice to get a bear completed from a coat down the line!

I will try again fresh with a new coat!

Thank you Nancy for sharing this wonderful knowledge with me and my readers!

Fur Friday - Sewing Lesson 6

Hello Everyone: Because I am late with my Fur Friday posts I am posting today to get caught up as I know some of you have been writing that you are going to start your fur bears and are enjoying the posts so why make you wait for the sake of the name of a day!

I have to say that this has been a fun experience up till this point at which time I think I am going to have throw in the towel! First I cannot stop sneezing! My face is super itchy as are my eyes and I can't stop sneezing! A mask... I need a mask and glasses and possibly a pair of gloves and maybe some duck tape... hahaha The bottom line is sometimes we are not meant to make real fur bears.

Here is another issue and maybe Nancy will write to tell us all what is going wrong;
I sewed my bear together only to turn the bear to the right side and see that everywhere I stitched has now turned into a perforated edge which has released itself and come apart. Big tears everywhere. So what this means is that even if I can get the bear resewn it is now going to be much smaller as I lost my seam allowance.

I followed the instructions: I changed my needle to my glover (leather needle)
I used a 1/4 inch seam allowance also. I double seam my bears... possibly this is the issue? Maybe if I increased the stitch length on the machine?

The other option of course is to hand sew the bear which I do on all my miniatures.This would allow me to control my tension which might be what is needed for this coat! I am honestly not sure and hand sewing real fur bears is not an option for me due to the sneezing...This is what happened to me with my non lined vintage bear that I posted for you all to see before... Gilbert! Remember, I told you all his seams tore the vintage mohair fabric backing! There are a number of reasons that this can happen but with the lining I did not think it would be an issue here! It was really very sad and I had to put the bear down for the night and walk away!

Now I also know that no matter if I get through the second bear that I cut out of this coat or not I will not be making fur bears at this time... due to the sneezing and eye burn! So I want to let you know that I have a few beautiful fur coats that have been prepared for bear making that I will be getting rid of! I have a Persian lamb and I also have a GORGEOUS silver fox so if anyone wants them and wants to pay the shipping they are yours - just contact me!

Fur Friday - Postponed due to online bear show

Hello Everyone:

I just wanted to let you all know that today's Fur Friday post will be postponed till next week as this weekend ... Starting today at 4:00pm Eastern Standard Time, the Teddies Worldwide Bear show - Teddy Bears Tea Party is beginning and Seraphim Bears is exhibiting!

I look forward to seeing you all there and I will have 8 bears to offer in the MINIATURE category! Two are a bit larger in size but most are minis!

Here is your link to the show:

TEDDY BEARS TEA PARTY

I will be back next week with a proper FUR FRIDAY post!

Fur Friday - Pinning and marking - Lesson 5

So now that you have your lining on your leather it is time to pin!

So you don't want to poke pins through your leather plus on some leathers that would be rather difficult so there are several options but here are two Nancy mentions in her book:

 You can use tape or paper clips!

I chose to use the paperclips as I was not sure about the tape fraying my muslin when I tried to remove it! It works rather well but I have not started to sew the bears yet so we shall see how they are to remove while sewing! I did do a test and feel it will work well and better with the plastic coated paper clips than the metal ones. The metal ones are tighter but stick more when you try to remove them so I guess this will be a matter of taste for each artist... so you need easy release for sewing or a good firm hold, possibly for a thicker more dense fur... just pins for thought.

Now as you all know I am going through a bit of health issues so I did not get a ton done but I did want to share this next step with you and I also want to share with you a way to mark your bear on the right side so you can see where you need to place your arms and legs etc.

My Grandmother used to do it like this so she did not have to try to find the markings on the inside after she had turned her bears to the right side... And I thought this worked especially well with the fur bears.

First take some nice thick upholstery thread in a contrasting color to what ever your fur or bear is and you want to tread your needle, find your marking and pull one piece through, like this: (I suggest doing this before you sew or pin anything together)

Once you pull the tread through to the right side of your work (the fur side) unthread the needle and make sure the thread that is left on the right side is a little longer than the fur or mohair or whatever you are working with so you can see it easily.

Then take the other end of the thread that is hanging on the wrong side of your work and thread the needle again and do the same thing on the other side of your dot marking. Like this:

In the end you should be able to see your threads sticking out longer than your fur on the right side of your working making it really easy to find your markings!

Once you are putting your arm or leg into place the thread is easily pulled out with a tiny tug! 

I hope to be back next week with more so stay tuned! 

Big hugs and thanks for your patience while I get used to my new medications!

Fur Friday - Lining - Lesson 4

Okay, so today I am back to show you all how to line your fur bear. This is a very important step and should not be skipped! This lining will give support to your bear especially if it is old! I would also recommend doing this technique on old mohair - say from a recycled coat for instance. Or on any other fabric that you feel is fragile!

When I first began making bears I made one out of an old black mohair coat that was made to look like Persian Lamb. I did not line this bear as I thought the fabric seemed okay...

When I tried to put the eyes into Gilbert one of them ripped right through the fabric and popped into his head! You can imagine my dismay! The fabric was too fragile to take apart and remake any part of the bear so needless to say, Gilbert will be a family bear and will never be sold! I still love him and he was a great learning experience. So take my word for this and learn from my mistakes... line your bear if you have any doubts about the fabric.

The first step is to get some good quality THIN muslin. You do not want to add unnecessary bulk to the bear and if your muslin is too thick it will also make turning the bear difficult! I use thin 100% unbleached cotton drapery lining. It is much thinner than the muslin that my fabric store supplies! It is all natural and soft also.

Trace your pattern onto the muslin with all necessary markings.

 If you trace your pattern on doubled fabric (Folded so you have two layers) you will only have to cut each piece once instead of twice! Remember your muslin has no nap so you can do this!

 Cut the muslin pieces out.

Don't forget to transfer all your markings to your muslin pieces and to do that on the right side of each piece... unless you can see through yours enough to see your markings that you made on your fur pieces! I marked both fur and muslin so I could make sure everything lined up perfectly!

Next you need a glue stick! I don't think it will matter what brand you use but here is mine:

Now you need to glue your lining to the backing of your fur. Use this glue SPARINGLY. Just a little is all you need! If you use too much when you go to sew this bear your needles are going to get all gummed up and will not slide through the leather easily. I actually kept my glue away from the edges of my pieces and concentrated on the center of the piece.

I did each piece one at a time with glue and lining so the glue would not dry out before I had a chance to get the lining on!

Once your glue is on the leather backing of your fur and you are happy with the amount you have placed on there get your corresponding piece of lining and match them up. Glue the lining to the backing and give it a good rub to press it down creating one piece!

Now your pieces should look like this:

Perfectly alined and lined!

I mentioned last week that there was a product that would help me to solve the issues I was having with my collar from this coat. The issue being that the leather had dried out. I also mentioned this product was something I had to purchase from a cake shop! And I promised to let you know this week what that product was...

So even though I am not going to demonstrate it's use this time around... here it is:

The glycerin is gently and sparingly rubbed into the leather backing of your fur. It will help to soften the leather without leaching through to the front like an oil or petroleum product will.

See you next week with the next exciting stage of making a fur bear!

Fur Friday - Cutting out a pattern - Lesson 3

Well, I am back with Fur Friday lesson three - Cutting out your pattern.

To start off with you will want to make yourself a very fashionable outfit to wear to protect your clothing from the hair. I have used the suggested garbage bag from Nancy's book! Of course you can have some fun with it and I was at work while cutting out this pattern and not in my studio so I wanted to give my outfit a bit of pizzazz! I cut out a semi circle for my head to go through and two for my arms and then took the cut out pieces and made myself a little flower for my hair. We also got an old extension cord and I used that as a belt! heehee Our customers thought I looked very sweet!

Next: A VERY IMPORTANT STEP ~ at least with seal


CHECK THE FUR FOR SKIN TAGS! I unfortunately did not know these existed and had already cut a whole piece when I realized there was something hard in the fur. When I tried to pull it out it left a hole!

I suggest running your fingers through the fur, pushing down on the back of the pelt to find these so that you can avoid cutting these areas into your bear!

Make sure to circle on the backing any areas you find that are torn or have skin tags so that you do not lay your pattern on these areas!

Next I laid my pattern out making sure all the pelts and patterns were laid out with the nap going the correct direction! In my case the pelts are very large and so there were only a very few times that I had to even cross a seam. I imagine this will make for easier sewing in the end. I also chose to do my bears (2 and possibly 3) in the sizes of 12" and 14". It was surprising how much fur there actually was!

Then it was time to cut the pattern out. Cut it the same way you would any other fabric with a long nap like mohair, alpaca or plush. Use nice sharp pointed short scissors and pull up on the backing slightly so that you don't cut the fur and only cut the leather or backing.

If you look close you will see makings that I scratched out! This was only done on this one piece and occurred because of finding the skin tag so I had to retrace my pattern in a different position and did not want to waste the fur so I traced a smaller piece of my bear pattern in the area. When on rare occasions that this happens I wiggle line out where I don't want to cut so I don't mistakenly cut the wrong line!

In the end, I had very little fur that fell out of the edges etc... I used to work with hair as a hairdresser so this was less hair than single haircut. For me this was not worth wearing the garbage bag for but I am sure when we get to using the fox coat with the thick undercoat and long guard hairs the bag will be essential!

DO NOT STORE YOUR COAT IN PLASTIC! Even your left over fur should not be in plastic or your pattern pieces that you have already cut out! I am using a few old pillow cases for mine for now.

Fur Friday - Taking it all apart - Lesson 2

So I did not have to send the coat away as previously planned as Nancy suggested just simply washing the lining and that is exactly what I chose to do but first I had to remove it and get the coat apart!

First of all, let me mention that I uses a professional seam ripper to do this and it probably cut my time by a quarter in completing this task!

If you have never seen one they are VERY sharp. They have a curved blade that is a razor and is very thin! This allows you to both get under each stitch with ease or in my case slide the blade along the seam line with no pressure which either will open up the seams or cut the leather very close to the seam.

The coat: had a few tears that had been hastily repaired with chunky stitching which was barely holding it together. Thankfully there were only two areas like this and both close to the armholes. I removed those stitches so as not to forget when laying the pattern that these areas were best avoided.

After removal of the lining which as you can see is really quite cool I was able to see fully the leather backing. Unfortunately I did not seem to see a stamp to tell me what the fur is but I could see the size of the pelts and I believe this verified that the coat is indeed seal. The leather is light and it was fairly easy to cut apart.

The hood trim: this leather is much thicker and a bit brittle so I will tackle this in another post to show you what Nancy says to do in this case to soften the leather! But not this post as I have to go an purchase what I need from the cake shop! ah ha... that'll get ya thinking!

So once the coat was apart I had a small mess to clean up on my studio floor but it was really not bad at all... it took seconds to vacuum. However I do plan to wear my garbage bag protector for the actual cutting of the pattern pieces for the next step.

I am going to be using my own patterns for these bears but if you are new to bear making or just simply want to take a "Class" through your book (if you purchase Nancy's book) then she has some really wonderful and sweet bears you can make using patterns of hers in the book. There are many choices also and even some clothing if you wish to cloth your bear. I have spent years on perfecting my patterns and because they are all I use I want to see how they translate to fur so I will stick to them for this journey. If I find that something in Nancy's book looks interesting and I have never done that I might alter one of my patterns which will give me another lesson!

I also took a course through Nancy's school on designing a pattern a long time ago that I found extremely enjoyable and helpful!


I will get to what to do with the lining another post nearer to the end of this particular journey!

Now all I have to do is decide on the size of bear I wish to make with this seal coat! This is not a long coat as you could see in the photo it is a bomber style so I don't have a lot of fur to work with!

Nancy suggests in her book that seal can be made up into a bear that is 7 - 17" tall. I am hoping in my case to get two bears out of this coat so that I can have one and I can offer the lady who donated the coat to me the other one. It will be a surprise as she was unable to pay for the service but seeing as how I am using the coat as a learning tool... and I am getting so very much out of this journey I would like to give her a thank you!

I don't think that I will incorporate the collar into these bears or bear depending on what I decided to do. There is not a whole lot of that fur and as I said the leather is very dry on that part but I will try to treat it and maybe do another of Nancy's projects on it later! There is a great bear ornament in her book!

Okay so that's it for post number two on Fur Fridays! If you are working along with me... that professional seam ripper is a great tool but if you don't have one Nancy uses a nice sharp pair of scissors to cut closely along the seam line!

DO NOT cut all the pelts individually apart! You are simply getting the coat apart in the biggest pieces possible so you have large areas that lay flat to draw your pattern onto! You want the pelts to stay sewn together where ever possible!

Also if your coat has a black lining! You want to keep that lining on and we are going to make another lining also in another post!

Have a great week everyone! Join me on What's On My Worktable Wednesdays also to see what other projects I am working on! This is just a short one photo post to give you a glimpse at my worktable... a little sneak peak!

Fur Friday - Identifying your fur

Hello Everyone and welcome to the very first post of Fur Friday's!

I thought I would begin at the point where you have either been given a fur coat by someone else or you have rescued a fur coat from either a thrift store or a garage sale or what possibly an inheritance... and now that it is yours you are looking at it wondering what it is or what it used to be?

In Nancy's book she has a wonderful chart to help you break down the possibilities of what your coat might have been before it became a coat! The coat I have been given seems to fit into the category of: seal with a collar of either mink or sable. My guess based on the description in Nancy's book that the collar is sable as I feel it is too long to be mink.

I want to add a very important note: If you have received this coat and are not sure where it has lived in the past... it is important to place the coat in the freezer for at least 48 hours. This will kill any mites and bugs that might be living on the coat! You should not put your real fur coats in a plastic bag so I will make a bag for my freezer coats out of an old sheet!


Here is the description of Seal and Sable from Nancy's book:

Seal: short and usually black in colour, with an extremely soft texture. The pelts are medium in size. Usually the longer guard hairs have been removed!

Sable: Beautiful, soft, dense fur with long guard hairs. Brown or black.

Here are some examples of each of these types of fur that I found on my google search:

 Seal

 Seal

Sable

Here are two photos of the coat I will be working with!

 

So what do you think Nancy... have I guessed it correctly?

Now here is the next issue: There are no furriers in my town and no dry cleaners here clean fur coats! So this means I have to send my coat with my Mum back to the big city to see if she can get it cleaned and to see if she can get verification on what type of fur my coat is! This also means I will have to either pay to have the coat shipped back to me or I will have to wait until my Mum's next visit to get the coat back. These are all things that should be taken into consideration if you choose to take on a commissioned work as these are all costs and time that need to be negotiated with your customer!

You will all have to wait patiently while this takes place and I will be waiting patiently with you! I have made my uneducated guesses as to the type based on some words and one or two photos but when you cannot touch and feel to compare it is more difficult than you might expect! The other thing is I really have not been around fur much in my life so I am a real novice at identifying where some of you might have owned your own fur coats so you might be one up on me already. 

There is a part of me which would like for this to never come about where I need to know what type of fur it is! Then it is simply just a piece of fabric... once I know what it is I will have a little face to go with it.... Okay Nancy... I am pushing past that and seeing only the teddy bear face to come! Deep breath... I can do this!

 

Michele and Nancy

Hello blog friends:

It has been a long time since I have been this excited and I must admit even a bit scared to write a post!

Have you seen the movie or read the book Julie and Julia? Well... I have decided to do something similar on my blog! I am hoping that it will not only be an excellent journey for me as an artist but also for you.

I am not sure if my journey will take me 365 days but I will continue on until I am done!

For those of you who follow me on Facebook you will know that today I had a meeting with an acquaintance who has been given a fur coat. This coat was purchased for a friend of hers from a Saudi Arabian princess and she asked me to make a bear out of the coat! 

I don't work in fur and have explained this to her before but she doesn't seem to understand that there is a big difference in working with fur and working in mohair and alpaca! Well, there is a big difference and I know that! Needless to say she arrived today with the coat and in the end did not want to pay the price I required to take on the task of making a bear from the coat! So instead she has simply donated the coat to me...

Now I have read on making bears out of fur coats and I have really mixed feelings about ME making one... and although I do not condone the killing of animals for fashion and luxury I have come to terms with the fact that the vintage coats came from a different time and I would essentially be giving meaning and bringing love back to an act that was once acceptable and no longer is! If I bring a coat back to life by making it into the most loved toy in the world... I can live with that!

So in my possession I have not one but four fur coats that I have either been given or rescued myself.

I also have a wonderful book called Teddy Bears With a Past by Nancy Tillberg... so I have decided to take this book and work through it just as Julie did with Julia's. 

I will not be following Nancy's patterns, I will use my own and in the cases of patterns that have things that I have never done I will make adjustments to my own patterns to allow me to learn even more in the process! This should be an exciting and challenging experience and I will surely come out the end an even better artist. I have several of Nancy's books and have even taken a course or two in the beginning of my bear making with her online Teddy University: Ebears University

Nancy Tillberg

You can still purchase this book used through Amazon and possibly online somewhere else if you are lucky and the price ranges from $24 to $99 for a copy.

So I am going to call my posts "Fur Friday" just to give them an identifiable name! I will post on Friday each week and you will be a part of this journey in which ever way the journey is taking me.

If all goes well, by the end of this journey I will be a more well rounded artist weather I choose to work in real fur or not. At least then I will be making the choice to not work in fur or work with fur with something to base it on! Right now it is all based on fear! Hahahaha

So on Friday we will start the journey and until then this is your heads up to start following my blog now. I will not hold anything back and I will share lots of pictures and talk all about the trials and all the errors I am having! I will be sure to mention the great tips that I learn from Nancy and will put them into my real life living in a small town where access to things can sometimes be a challenge!

So as I have read this book several times over the years... I thank you Nancy for standing by me virtually while I take this journey. You are a pioneer in this business, a fellow Canadian and a wonderful business woman whom I have admired over these years working in the business myself. I can only hope that your view of me does not end up the same way as Julia's in the movie towards Julie. But if it does I am sure mine will be as Julie's was... I will still love you and be grateful for all you have shared and all you have given to this business!

Big Hugs to all and I will be back on Friday with the first "Fur Friday" post!