Step 4: Manufacturing and Design Once the pelts are ready, furriers can use them to design and make clothing. Sewing a fur coat is not as simple as sewing a shirt or a pair of pants; it takes more than 40 hours of skilled work to make the average fur coat (that's more time than it takes to make a car today). A completed fur may have up to 10,000 seams when finished! Putting together a well-made garment requires a number of key steps:
Design on paper Every coat starts out as a design on paper. From this pattern, the exact number of skins required to make the coat is calculated.
Matching furs The furrier matches the color, hair length, texture and shine of each adjoining pelt. This alignment of skins is very important for the beauty of the garment.
Trimming Once skins have been matched they are trimmed to fit the pattern. If a pelt has any imperfections it will be fixed now.
'Letting out'
During the "letting out" process, a pelt can be lengthened to any desired size. Individual skins are cut in half and each half is then cut into narrow strips that will be sewn into a longer and thinner shape retaining the color and markings of the original pelt. Pelts can also be worked "skin to skin" (whole pelts joined together} or in other ways to produce different textures and special effects.
Joining The pelts are then joined together to cover the pattern drawn out on a large sheet called a blocking board. At this stage the pieces are wet, gently stretched and stapled down to exactly fit the pattern and increase suppleness.
Removing fur panels
Once the garment is dry, the fur panels are removed from the blocking board. Excess fur is trimmed away and recycled. Even small pieces of fur are saved and sewn together to make another kind of coat.
Closing Process In the closing process, the sleeves and collar are added to the main part of the coat and the garment is sent out to be cleaned. This is the first of two cleanings which remove all the loose hair and dust that may have accumulated on the fur.
Finishing stage When the coat comes back from the cleaner, the finishing stage begins. Here, the lining is inserted into the garment and the final tailoring touches are completed with the addition of shoulder pads, interfacing, pockets and hem. Once the lining, buttons, hooks and other accessories have been added, the coat goes back for a final cleaning.
Quality check
The furrier then does a last quality check to ensure that the garment is hanging properly, all seams are lying perfectly flat and the matching of the pelts is perfect. The new fur is now ready to be sent to the retailer and to its final destination - the consumer.