Fur Muffs For All

I did up a batch of fur muffs for the Steampunk event and actually sold four or five, in spite of it being 'spring' now and not winter.  There are several 'how to' videos online that show different ways of making these, some of them include many unneeded steps.  When I located the simplest one that worked smarter (not harder) I used those instructions, so the sewing was strictly 3 straight lines on the machine and one hand sewn area to close. 

In short, they were very very simple to make. 

I used a 15x15" size for the outside, and a 12x15" interior.  The next batch I'm adding another 2" on both sizes, upping the first to 15x17" and the interior 14x15" to make them a little larger.  Right now they're sized for a small ladies hands or teen/kids, though the kids would be sort of roomy.

Fake fur on the outside, that swirly black poodle cuddle fur on the inside to help reflect heat and make it super soft, and 1" batting in between, plus a wrist strap that hides inside -- a person can make one in maybe 15 minutes from start to finish.  It's not so much the time involved it's the cost of the materials.  I suppose they were underpriced at $8 each but I wanted them to sell and will likely carry them for the Christmas event in Sussex in December of this year.

The velvet with gold swirl fabric was my fancier attempt and that worked out nicely, I was real happy with it. 

The photo shoot was done in the living room, with white batting laid on the couch.  Rudy was making a pest of himself for the entire time trying to do a snatch and grab on the other items being photographed so he was very surprised when I grabbed him and plunked him down behind the muffs to help show 'scale' for size.  He stayed long enough to get only two or three shots, then bolted.

The plain leopard print was very nice and plush but there wasn't much left at the fabric store so I only got half a yard (using coupons to get 50% off) and wish now that I'd gotten more. I really liked the look of them.  However the ones that sold were all the black velvet/swirl ones like the one right in the front of the picture here.  Go figure. 

The snow leopard fake fur is very pretty and would go with either silver or gold, I make the wrist straps out of solid black velour, which folds down inside the muff itself to be hidden.  The online patterns were able to be made WITH pockets inside for cell phones and keys, however when I looked at the interior fabric I was using, it was way too slick to hold anything inside securely, I'd have had to be using a cotton or less soft fabric for the interior and I didn't want to do that so I just went with no pockets.  I'm happy with that.