Sewing with faux fur and shaggy fabrics can be a slippery experience. And it might also feel like flying blind. Because depending on the length of the pile, the edge of the fabric and therefore your orientation when sewing can be completely lost in shaggy hair. But don’t worry: with enough time and care, both of these problems can be solved! We have some useful tips for you on how to pin and sew fake fur including short video tutorials.

Well pinned is half sewn! How to pin fake fur

When pinning fake fur or shaggy fabrics, the same applies as with any plush fabric: don’t skimp on pins! The more pins, the cleaner the sewing result will be. However, there is one thing you should pay particular attention to when pinning long-piled plush: the long pile fibers must be pushed between the layers of fabric when pinning! When you’re done pinning, there shouldn’t be any hairs sticking out. With this trick you can easily prevent hairs from being sewn in and then having to be laboriously pulled out of the seam again. Use lots of pins so that plush fibers don’t slip out again.

You can also watch this short video tutorial from our Youtube Channel on how to pin fake fur:

How to pull tangled faux fur fibers out of a seam

If a few piles have gotten caught in the seam and disappeared: Don’t panic, your sewing project is not lost, you can fix it with a pin! Simply grab a few fibers at a time with the pin and carefully pull them out of the seam. This requires a little patience, but afterward all the hair is where it belongs and the seam is barely visible. Check this video to see how it works:

Sew fake fur pieces between other fabric layers

When sewing in pieces made of long-piled plush fabric (like the limbs of our shaggy monster), the same applies as when pinning faux fur: you have to make sure that no hair is sewn into the seam. The difference here, however, is that you are dealing with not just two, but four layers of shaggy fabric. So this can be even more challenging! But there are some tricks on how to handle this:

• Smooth the fibers at the piece to be sewn in (e.g. arms or legs) away from the edge and, if necessary, fix them with adhesive tape outside the seam allowance. Spraying some water can help smoothing!
• Now pin the fabric layers together and sew the fibers smooth within the seam allowance using a straight stitch. This is how you get the hair out of the way.
• The pin the piece in the designated place. Push all the hair between the layers of fabric.
• Sew the piece in place within the seam allowance using a straight stitch.
• Once you have done this with all the body parts you want to sew in, you can sew your stuffed animal together.