Well, I started sewing my parkie together on Wednesday. It is a lot more work than I first thought, but it is going, and I think I am going to like it. I had a couple ladies come over and work on projects with me, and I am glad I did! I was about to start cutting my first rabbit skin, when one of the ladies warned me not to use a scissors. Doing so cuts the hairs, and then it looks funny where you sew the two parts together. Instead, she told me to use an ulu or a razor blade and cut from the skin side, so that the hairs aren't cut. This makes perfect sense, but just hadn't occurred to me. I had to sharpen my ulu to get it working better, but I am getting better at cutting the way I want to with it. I have sewn 4 rabbit skins together so far, and one little scrap onto it as well, making the top half of the front of my parkie (minus the sleeves). The little part matched up really well, and I was excited about this and sewed it on to fill in a needed piece, but wasn't paying enough attention I guess. I was getting better at sewing it by then, and it turned out good, with no wrinkles in the leather, but then I noticed that while all my rabbit hairs are pointed down, I accidentally sewed that one little piece with the hairs going up! Oh well. The furs are going to be on the inside, so nobody should notice, and it is a pretty little piece anyway. I learned from my mistake, and I am starting to figure things out more. That is the main thing. I know I won't do a perfect job on this, as it is my first attempt and I don't really know what I am doing. I was really glad to get a few pointers from my friend Grace though, and it is turning out good enough for me! I have never been the really picky type =)
1 comment:
Anna, Looks like it will be warm. Did you tan the rabbit hides yourself too? I scraped a deer hide a couple of years ago--a lot of hard work. I would guess doing rabbit would be really hard to clean it without scraping a hole in the skin.
Deb Bruihler
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