It’s
finally gotten cold enough out to break out my furs. Fur is probably one of my biggest guilty
pleasures. I just love the look and feel
of real fur. Yes, I know that animals
died to make the stoles and collars I adore so much. That is why it is a guilty pleasure. To help assuage my guilt, I only buy vintage
fur. My rationale is that by wearing
something made from animals that were killed well over half a century ago, I am
somehow bringing more meaning to their deaths.
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| One of my vintage fur finds. |
Several
years ago I found this wonderful fur capelet at the Salvation Army. It was in fairly good shape when I bought it
but, after several wearings and once lending it to a less-then-gentle
acquaintance, the shoulder began to tear apart.
I tried to mend it and thought of getting a big flower broach or
something to cover up the spot but it had gotten to the point where I no longer
wanted to wear it. Maybe it was my
upbringing, but I cannot stand to throw things away if they are still
potentially useful. Only the shoulder of
the capelet was torn. The rest of it was
still in beautiful shape. So, instead of
trashing it, I recycled it into scarf.
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| Too much damage to cover up. |
I
carefully removed the satin lining and examined the fur. A lot of the hide had dried out and was in
worse shape than I anticipated but I still was able to salvage some nice
strips. I cut the lining to match then
sewed everything back together again. I
made some bows with extra bits of lining to cover up some of the
less-attractive seams. I think it turned
out well for my first time working with real fur. It’s also wonderfully soft and cozy. Perfect for these single-digit winter days!
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| From capelet to scarf. |
Also
while pulling out more winter accessories I discovered that I did not have a hat
to go with my red coat. I have a great
burgundy wool cloche that I knit a few years ago that clashes horribly with the
coat but I really like the look of it.
So, I decided to make another in black. I couldn’t find the pattern I originally used
but I had no trouble finding several new patterns on ravelry (I love
ravelry.com!). It took two evenings of knitting
in front of the tv and two trips through the washing machine and then, voila, a
black felted wool cloche hat!
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| Knitted cloche before felting. |
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| Final felted cloche. |
