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For artists and collectors sponsored by Intercal...your mohair supplier and Johnna's Mohair Store
You all know I am new here and to making artist bears...WELL, I wish someone had told me what kind of fur to use for beginners. I am on my thrid bear and I bought some beautiful white mink faux fur. It is gorgeous! BUT, it is SO HARD to sew and now I am trying to close seams and it is impossible! PLUS, I now remember why, 30 years ago, I stopped making baby cuddly animals...I AM ALLERGIC TO POLYESTER! Which, of course, is what the stuff is made of I guess! My hands are so sore and bleeding I don't know when I will be able to finish my Christmas bear...hopefully by Christmas!
The Littlest Thistletrim the fur back from the seams by the seam allowance amount, then it will sew together fine and won't have clumpy seams 
I know what you mean about the allergy though, I went looking for walking socks earlier and although my hands only brushed a few ones with wool, they were red and itchy amost immediately. Of course the problem with applying cream to combat it is that it'll get on the fur. Have you thought about using cotton or silk gloves to work in?
I have tried and cannot work with gloves! Yes, the wool thing is bad too. Do you have a problem with mohair? I have pricked my finger with the needle that I root mohair with and got a very bad reaction. Don't know how it would work making a bear out of mohair. I have bought some but have been afraid to try...
Baildon bearsI know what you mean, I bought some lovely pink faux fur but Mohair is so much easier to sew and cut. I gave up in the end There is a lot a skill that goes into sculting the face when using faux fur. I might have another try one day. but for now having small children and fur every where does not mix. Hannah
:doh: I hear ya...my house is now a beautiful fuzzy white!
EJ's CraftsI am so sorry you are having such a reaction to the faux fur. Mohair is a wool so may have the same problem. I have mainly worked with faux fur and have no problems. After almost 30 years of working with it, I have learned the ins and outs of sewing and stuffing to get the efffect that I want. There are so many different grades of faux fur and I have probably used every one of them. I don't have any suggestions on what to do to stop the reaction to the poly. The only thing is to use gloves and you said that doesn't work. You could make fabric bears but then they wouldn't be fuzzy.
FenBeary FolkHi Lenora, I too have an allergic reaction to faux fur. I have to wear a decorators mask when cutting and trimming. It's not the faux fur as such its the density, length and looseness. I have found that I don't react to real mohair unless it is the very dense long type.
Have you tried the surgical gloves you can get, they are made from latex and could give you the protection you need 
I usually keep surgical gloves and I am out. I will try that. This fur is beautiful...the backing is really nice and the fur is long and dense. I love it but my hands don't. I was wondering about the mohair though. I do root my babies with mohair but, like I said, if I even prick my finger a tiny bit I have a bad reaction and infection. Don't know if it is the mohair itself or perhaps something on it? Perhaps the chemicals used to clean it? Guess I'll find out. I bought some beautiful mohair for my Ellie I am planning.
The Littlest ThistleThe wool allergy is usually caused by lanolin, but mohair allegedly doesn't have that. Mind you I have noticed my hands being very dry of late using the faux fur, but put it down to being winter eczema. I wonder if they treat it with something...
I know the mohair I use for rooting babies is bought raw and then washed several times with special soap and then dyed...hummm, could be the dye!
Emo BearsMy mum has a wool allergy and is allergic to Mohair too! She can only touch one of my bears if it is make a faux fur.
Oh my, perhaps I should get out my mohair fur and hold it and play with it a bit to see if I react...
The Littlest ThistleRight, I've come to the conclusion they must treat the faux fur with something. Now, having been working just this afternoon with it, my hands are bright red, swelling and itchy - grrr. Now I'm going to dig out my cotton gloves and see if I can work with it. I've only ever worked with it once before and had no problems, but it was a completely different kind of fur from a totally different source. May have to move back to mohair entirely, but I'm so sad, I really liked this stuff 
I had a different type of faux fur too...it wasn't polyester and I had no problems but with polyester it feels like it is eating on my hands. Ouch!
Faux Paw BearsI have been following this thread with interest. I have avoided mohair while learning the craft out of expense and because I have a tactile allergy to wool and assumed it would be rough to work with.
However after months of working with faux fur I experienced distinct drying of the skin on my fingers and cracking and brittleness of my nails...they fractured and started cracking and broke down to the point that it looked like I bit them...my nails seemed more effected then the skin...but I had never had this problem before.
I did wonder if it was associated with all the hand sewing...handling unwashed fabric...I wondered if there might be formalins in the backing of fabric that were causing the brittleness I was experiencing in my nails...after all it is the backing we work with most and that is where I am focusing my suspicions.
I have put away my sewing for the last six weeks to prepare for xmas and guests, taken pectin supplements and my hands and nails have returned to normal.
My plan is to investigate the formalin theory. I know that its use in setting dyes in fabrics is what gives me headaches from the fumes in fabric stores.
Maybe washing the fur in cold water and a cold air fluff dry will relieve our symptoms...some of the faux furs are ammenable to such treatment. I know I have fluffed some up in the dryer to good effect to remove creasing from storage.
What do you think?
Pat
The Littlest ThistleI was wondering about the possibility of washing the fur earlier right enough, was going to come on here to ask, well done Pat, beat me to it
EJ's CraftsWashing might work. I know I dyed and washed some faux fur and it came out fine. The dye made it a little stiffer than the original fur but it worked for what I wanted. On another note, I do have brittle nails when I am sewing, no matter what fur or fabric I am using. I just had marked it up to all the sewing both machine and hand but some may be to all the chemicals in the fur or fabric. Interesting!
Well, I have the same problem with any polyester material...the worse is fleece! And, yes, my nails get dry and brittle and split and peel...they get very sore too!
The Littlest ThistleAh, now thankfully I don't have an issue with polyester, otherwise I'd be very cold when out photographing landscapes (was -9 on Sunday morning lol), I think for me it's the treatment on the fur to make it that glossy/shiny appearance. Tea tree oil lotion works wonders I have to say, if you leave your hands to marinate overnight, albeit it does smell quite strong!
I use my diabetic crack cream...
The Littlest ThistleI'm sure there's something about taking crack that's just not right 
Having lanolin allergies really limits the creams I can use, but tea tree oil is meant to be good for rashes. I spent the 6 months i lived in South Africa coated in the stuff, apparently I was allergic to Jo'burg!
This is Zimms crack cream...it leaves a film on your hands so you have to use it after your done with the fur!
Faux Paw BearsI've never done so much hand sewing in my life...always machine work. And I did wonder if the issue was solely due to increased hand sewing and not specifically the faux fur. I think that handling lots of unwashed new fabric could produce irritation too.
The vet tech in me is going to reach for Udder Balm and see if that helps...I just can't sew with surgical gloves. You would have to wear them for such an extended period of time...
And eat lots of jello! 
Pat
The Littlest ThistleNo, sewing in the gloves didn't work terribly well, but wearing the glove on the hand that holds the material and having no glove on the hand with the needle seemed to help. Plus I'm also allergic to latex, so surgical gloves wouldn't work either - argh!
I do like the idea of eating jelly though, any particular flavour?
