Cutting Fake Fur

Cutting fake fur can be messy. Mary Beth Temple shares a quick tip for cutting fake fur to keep your work area clean, and to make sure you don’t accidentally give your fur pile an unwanted haircut.

If you attempt to cut the fake fur with the fur side facing up using your fabric shears, much of the fur pile gets trimmed as well, resulting in a big mess. Plus some of that fur pile that gets trimmed down might show on the right side of your project, resulting in an odd looking blunt cut in the pile.

To avoid this, Mary Beth recommends turning the fur wrong side up. Use a fabric marker to draw your cutting lines onto the fur’s backing fabric, then use a craft knife to cut only the fabric backing, not the fur pile. Mary Beth demonstrates her technique of holding the fur slightly up off the cutting mat and using the craft knife to slice through just the fabric backing.

With this method, you will avoid messy faux fur pile floating around on your cutting mat, plus get a nice clean cut on the fabric backing to avoid any odd cuts in the pile.

Get more tips for working with tricky fabric in these great videos:
Taming Tricky Fabric Class
Tips for Managing Bulky Fabric
Tips for Working with Terry Fabrics