My latest commission has been my biggest challenge to date, it involved repurposing not 1, not 2, but 6 fur jackets and coats into one gigantic fur throw. My clients brief was simple but definitely not easy. Her aesthetic was “Games of Thrones style” but she didn’t like the patchwork look nor did she want a repeat pattern either.
As always I began by deconstructing all of the furs, this helps me understand the condition of the pelts and how much fur there is to work with. Each fur is made different from the last and there are often hidden repairs done to fur that are only visible when you unpick it and look at the skin side. There were a couple of additional jackets and coats that didn’t make the cut as they were too damaged, dry and brittle to re work. The throw took a lot of head scratching to work out what layout would look best. I initially played around with doing blocks of colour in a sort of ombre style with the idea to sew them both together, but it wasn’t really working.
Going from imagery online, a lot of the Games of Thrones fur throws look like they’re made from fox or raccoon and were generally one fur for the whole throw. It was a challenge to come up with a design that melted together all of the different textures, hair lengths and colours in each jacket without making it look too patchwork. In the end I chose the 4 jackets that were in the best condition for the main rectangle base. The middle four sections are made up of rabbit, squirrel, mink and musquash. (The photo on the left shows a black fur in the centre however this became unworkable due to being too old and damaged, so I replaced it with the dark red musquash.) The left over furs from these bits were incorporated into parts of the trim, alongside another 2 jackets. You’ll notice the throw was so vast I had to keep bringing it home to lay it out in my living room!
The next challenge was getting each of the 4 middle fur sections the same size, some had more swing than the other and each had their own unique pattern within the fur, therefore each requiring a different technique. For the squirrel and rabbit I had to have the fur running two separate directions to make them into rectangles, I placed them diagonal to one another to give a more symmetrical look to the piece. The rabbit was the easiest section as the hair length was long and more forgiving. The mink took the longest to re work as I had to add width onto the top half of it by sewing in long thin strips of leather between the pelts. This is a great technique to do if you have a fur with a large amount of swing, it is very time consuming but creates a stunning look once done.
The final throw ended up measuring a whopping 3.2m x 2m and weighed 8kg! We opted for a dark brown velvet for the lining material. I am absolutely chuffed with how this one came out, my client is going to take it in her campervan and use it for snuggling up under the stars! If you have some vintage furs gathering dust in your wardrobe, pop your details into my contact form here and lets see what we can remake.
