Sewing fake fur

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indrayu

New member
Trying to sew some luxurious fake fox fur on my mother's good sewing machine. It sews everything with ease...except this stuff. Testing on thick towelling fabric was fine, but not testing the real fabric. So far, I've tried a normal needle, a stretch fabric needle and every thread tension with long stitch length. The problem is, the thread always loops on the underside. Haven't adjusted the bobbin tension, as it looks OK on the top. All internet searches "how to sew faux fur" etc don't mention this problem, only talk about cutting the fabric and cleaning the seams.

(Oh, I'm not actually making a costume, I'm trying to make a toy. But I have seen video of a respected bellydancer wearing a skirt that looked like it had black cat tails attached all over. You never know when someone might actually want to end up on TPBDC thread :lol: )
 
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indrayu

New member
It's the thread from the top tangling. All looks OK on the topside while sewing, but turn the work over..:(
 
Daimona

Daimona

Moderator
indrayu said:
It's the thread from the top tangling. All looks OK on the topside while sewing, but turn the work over..:(
Click to expand...

Ah, yeah.. Without me claiming to be an expert, I'd say it is a typical thread tension problem (over thread being too loose). Do you have any scraps of the fur fabric to test on?

On my old sewing machine, how the tension adjuster works depends on phase of the moon, season, weather and mood of the day (or whatever I haven't figure out that probably causes the tension to be weird). I've found a quick fix that works periodically in irregular periods (hence the reasons above), but some of the sewing machine experts in here (such as Zorba) will probably give you better advices than me..
 
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indrayu

New member
Just in case someone is hunting for an answer to a similar problem...

It seems that many machines have an automatic tension release mechanism. When the presser foot is raised, the tension releases so you can pull the work out from under the foot easily. Something very thick under the foot may activate this mechanism.

The solution was very fortunate and simple: Mum's nice new-ish machine is sitting on an ancient treadle-powered one. It has almost nothing to adjust, only does straight stitch and sews through almost anything. The only tricky part is learning to make it start moving in the right direction without electricity!
 
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