I found this DVD, this is one of my favourite films, and books, ever…the chameleon like charm of the lead man, played by Tom Courtney, seems oddly familiar!? Or perhaps its the comedy and everyday charm that belongs to the Kitchen Sink Drama movement that makes me love the film so much!! However what I found myself looking at was the fabulous faux fur scarf worn by Julie Christie, and this reminded me that I had recently discovered my favourite method for fastening such a scarf.
Now I’m not new to these cosy scarves, I bought my first one many years ago and have found them occasionally in charity shops and sales since, but it wasn’t until I decided to write a post about the best fastening for a fur collar that I realised just how many I had. Let’s just add faux fur scarves to my obsessive collections list which already includes buttons, brooches, clocks and mirrors! The two above are the favourites. The one on the left was the first to be given a new fastening, I mean, if it doesn’t have a fastening of some sort, how does it stay on??
I added giant poppers.
The scarf on the right is perfection. The loop created in the sewing together of this fur scarf means that the scarf can move up and down through the loop so that it can be worn loose and low or high up and cosy!! I’ll add the pattern and how to make this one up at the end of this post.
How many of these do I have…I’m almost embarrassed to say…13!! and there could be more but I’m not going to look. Seems I have definitely made collecting fur scarves a new obsession!
The traditional hook and eye doesn’t work for me – it slides out of place too easily. So I will have to add a popper!
The unusual clip, like a hairclip, started out quite well, but the more it was used the less the grip worked!
The giant, gap, almost like a buttonhole gives a good shape, but eventually it needed help? I added a clear giant popper.
The strip, worked like a belt loop, and looks like it should work really well, but it also got the help of a popper.
I altered this one, last year, the scarf was simply a double strip of fur fabric and it wouldn’t sit well tied, too thick and bulky, nor would it sit straight down, too bouncy! I slit two lines in the fur fabric and sewed in a tube of lining, sewing the two sides of the slit into a circle, on both sides, making it almost like a hand muff. This seemed like a good technique, but its not the best one.
These 4 are more like collars and each one has a series of small elasticated loops that button onto corresponding buttons on a cardigan or jacket. This method works really well!
Finally the best one of all and the pattern.
You will need
A fur strip 126cm x 18cm, 2 pieces of lining 96cm x 17cm and 30cm x 17cm, add the seam allowances you prefer to use. The 1cm difference in the widths is to allow for the fur to roll slightly round onto the lining.
With right sides of the fabric together, sew the smaller piece of lining to the fur. Sew from the raw edges to the spot marked with the vertical pin, a seam allowance amount from the edge of the lining. Do this on both sides.
Pull through to the right side and fold over to meet all the raw edges together.
Pull the lining pieces and the fur together and pin.
Machine stitch across, keeping the long piece of the fur underneath and out of the way of the stitching.
And sew across, this forms the loop.
You should only have sewn 2 lining edges and 1 fur edge, the stitch line does not go through onto the main body of the fur!
5
Go back into the loop and snip to the stitches on both sides. Time to add the longer lining piece.
Pin from the snips in the fur fabric, leave the lining seam allowance as an overlap, do not stitch it, and then stitch all round the rest of the scarf.
Stitched round. Now pull through this part of the scarf, or…
because I’m a bit lazy with the hand stitching, I went back in to stitch across the opening as far as I could with the machine, then I pulled the right sides through!
If the fur was bulkier, I would probably have hand stitched across this whole seam, since the tail of the scarf has to come through it.
Hand stitch to close the opening.
Finished. I gave this a hovering steam press, not actually touching the fabric!?
Wear it medium, low or high! Depending on the weather! Now I have faux fur scarf number 14! I should add that this faux fur scarf was made from an old faux fur scarf! A refashion! The fabric is so so soft and smooth that it used to slide off, not any more!