99-352 Final Project: Shearling Mitten Skill Investigation

Intention

My goal was to learn the process of working with thicker, natural textiles (i.e. fur, leather, etc).  Included in this was proper scaling of  the template, cutting the hide, machine sewing the thicker material, and using a sewing awl

Process

I decided to use shearling mainly because of its affordability. However, it is also thinner and more pliable than many other fur hides, making it a good entry level material. 

Product

I decided to make a pair of mittens with the shearling. I chose to make them, as I thought this was a good entry-level garment given its simplicity and small size. I started by printing a template and increasing its based on the size of my own hand. It took a few iterations of drawing and cutting the template out of paper, "trying-on" each iteration for size. 

Once I was happy with the template size I traced the pattern onto the back of the fur using textile chalk. I then cut the pattern using a sharp razor. This helps prevent cutting the actual fur on the other side of the hide. 

After the hide was cut, the thumb and main pieces were each separately machine sewn. The thumb could then be flipped right-side-out and inserted into the mitt. It was hand-sewn on using the sewing awl as pictured. After all the sewing was finished, the entire mitt was flipped right-side-out resulting in the pictured final product.

Reflection

Throughout the project I gained experiencing machine sewing thicker, natural textiles. I also learned how to do a interlocking stitch using a leather awl. If I were to have more time, I would have liked to blanket stitch the entire mitt by hand with a thicker thread for added strength. 

Sample Book

Here are photos documenting the samples made during the class. This includes examples of different stickers, e-textiles, crochet, using a laser cutter and a plotter to cut textiles, and use of darts.