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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;lizjewel, post: 3088824, member: 13874&quot;]I&#039;ve had some experience with furs, have owned a few, both new and vintage. A great Norwegian Fox full length coat started to show its age after so many years. I had bought it new but, well,&nbsp; years go by. The coat started to have splits like [USER=17259]@Lotto[/USER] describes.</p><p><br /></p><p>Dear Lotto: From the bottom of my heart and I hope it isn&#039;t so BUT, <i>if</i> your fur is quite dry which is common with vintage furs, do <i>not</i> try to stitch the skins together.</p><p><br /></p><p>Each stitch will only make another hole and tear the skin around it. I e, you will make it worse.</p><p><br /></p><p>What I did, successfully: I purchased a fabric known as<i> interfacing</i> in a fabric store [in my area, J-o-A-n-n-s]. This fabric comes with or without a glue surface on the back. I got the one with the glue backing. You want a lightweight preferably non-woven version of this interfacing. Ask advice of the friendly assistants in the store, they know.</p><p><br /></p><p>After carefully with a pen marking the areas with the splits and holes I cut out pieces of the interfacing to cover them with generous margins&nbsp; around them.</p><p><br /></p><p>Next, I proceeded to warm up my iron and carefully ironed the interfacing pieces onto the back of the skins over the holes, splits and tearing areas.</p><p><br /></p><p>This takes a deft hand, Lotto. You need to read the instructions for the iron-on interfacing first, check the correct heat of iron.</p><p><br /></p><p>Place the fur side of the coat on a clean and heatresistant large flat surface, preferably with a clean sheet or similar under the fur. Do a small test area first see how it comes out. If happy with it, keep going.</p><p><br /></p><p>Caution: Do not make the cut-out interfacing pieces<i> unnecessarily large</i>. Use several small pieces instead.</p><p><br /></p><p>Why? Because the glue on the interfacing will harden the fabric somewhat and thus also the back of the fur. You don&#039;t want to feel (or look!) as if there is cardboard in the coat; it&#039;ll be both ugly and uncomfortable. So proceed gently, a little piece at the time.</p><p><br /></p><p>Of course, it goes without saying so I&#039;ll say it: You&#039;d need to take out the stitches around the lining partly so you can get to the back of the fur. And then handstitch it back again after your repairs are finished.</p><p><br /></p><p>Disclaimer: I have done this on several furs of mine with success. I do not however, warrant that it will work for all kinds of fur or that the result will be perfect for everyone who tries it.</p><p><br /></p><p>Also, this is not a <i>fix for all time</i>. A vintage fur will keep getting even more dry as it ages. You might have to do it again. And when it no longer is worth doing and can&#039;t be worn it makes a great bed liner for a dog or cat!</p><p><br /></p><p>P.S. My favorite adopted <i>aunt </i>(we adopted each other) was a widowed lady friend whose family had been in the fur business for generations. She showed me how they used to repair furs. They did not have gluebacked interfacing back in the early days but they used cotton or linen fabrics and coated it themselves with a liquid glue they mixed for this purpose and applied weights to make them stick evenly.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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