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enchantmentsart Feb 22, 2008

Does anyone have any tips on cleaning real fur?  I box a box full  of vintage fur that was stored in an attic so it has a very "musty" smell.  I thought about maybe fabreeze?  but didn't know if that would  be ok for the fur.  Can it be washed?  any tips would be great! Thanks everyone 

momanimallover Feb 22, 2008

hi I always put febreeze on my real fur bears and then blow dry it dry, works great! I also hand washed a piece of real fur [fox fur] with some shampoo, rinsed it well, squeezed the water ot gently, put towels on top and pressed hard on it to soak up some water, then I used the blowdryer to dry it. Took awhile to dry but turned out fine! I have put it in the dryer on gentle heat and that seemed to work well also, I would never use a hot heat though, the fur was so fluffy afterwards! Maybe try a test piece I hope this helps,  Brenda. Oh, and when blowdrying, brush the fur as your drying it

enchantmentsart Feb 23, 2008

thanks so much!  I'll try some fabreeze & see how it works. 

Little Bear Guy Feb 23, 2008

We usually would hang it up outside and let it get some air,  I wouldn't recommend washing the fur as it can really dry out the skins of the fur , since it's leather getting it wet is not a good thing. 

We have used stuff that is for home dry cleaning, comes with like a bounce sheet and a bag, you put it in the bag and then into the dryer but just on air no heat.  That usually worked the best for us,  fabreeze  should do the trick as well but I have never tried that.

good luck and big hugs

Shane

StarHawk2003 Feb 23, 2008

I would hang it outside to air for a while. I'm not sure about using fabreeze.. Do you think the leather would be ok?

If you do however, have any greasy spots, use bran. When I used to breed and show my Russian blues, we would never give them a bath, it strips all the oils out of the coat and there coat would go flat as it is very plush

Our bran bath would consist of, heating some bran in the oven for about 10 mins until warm, then rubbing it into the coat against the grain. leave in as long as possible and brush out or shake out.

-WARNING- If giving a cat a bran bath, don't shake the bran out  :crackup:

momanimallover Feb 24, 2008

I always use fabreeze after I'm done making the bear, it never gets a chance to touch the leather cause as soon as I spray it on, I blow dry the fur  

Little Bear Guy Feb 24, 2008

I know the majority of fur coats are cleaned with a sawdust material,  professional fur cleaners put them in a large drum with this mixture as it will pick up any odours and oils on the fur.  The only true smell you can't get out of a fur coat is smoke, you might be able to mask the odour but it will still be there ( this information comes for our furrier in our city and a fur manufacturer in Montreal that we visited)

I agree that I would just hang it up outside first and let it get some air , in our old house we had an apple tree in the back yard and we would hang all our fur coats on it, summer and winter.  Our neighbour use to laugh and tell us cool it was that we were able to turn an apple tree into a fur tree  :crackup:  :crackup: . 

Fabreeze should do a good job and it wouldn't bother the leather unless your soaking your fur in it  :crackup:  :crackup:  but if your just spraying it on the fur it should do a good job.

hugs

Shane

enchantmentsart Feb 24, 2008

Thanks everyone!  The fur is starting to lose the smell already just being out of the box.  Thank goodness none of it smells like smoke.  Now the only thing is getting the leather backing to stay together, some of the fur is starting to dry rot from age.