Ruff project completed!
First off, a thank you to Pake for your illuminating post on making a fur ruff...
http://wintertrekking.com/index.php?topic=201.msg1209#msg1209 Without it, I would never have had the wisdom to put in a stiffening wire. That makes all the difference in good fit and adjustment.
This ruff fur is for a recently purchased ventile wind shirt. I got it from Bill Worb, a furrier in Winnipeg. It’s #1 winter quality coyote. Bill's a decent guy to deal with.
I sewed this 3” hood cowl from 1000D coyote brown cordura (I bought 6 yards of it on ebay for assorted gear projects I have on the go). The wire lays inside a stitched channel.
I wanted to go with snaps for fastening it to the inside edge of the hood. I used a hammer and punch to set those.
I needed to trim the fur a little so I used a razor blade, cutting on the skin side. It’s best to cut very gently until you break through the hide. Then slowly peel the two pieces apart (the fur hairs are somewhat intertwined here).
These are leather needles. They have a triangular point and they worked damn well for stitching the fur to the cowl. Sewing the two pieces together took a long time though. I wanted to make sure the hairs didn’t get caught up in the stitches. During each stitch I smoothed back the hairs, then drew the thread tight. Took hours, but you have to respect the material.
The finished ruff…
Yeah!
