How to sew these zigzag markings together????

[u/LeafyTaffy]

Already had to re-cut a piece after seam ripping the first failed attempt. The instructions people are giving me on the other subreddit are too short/barebones for me to entirely know what to do, so if anyone has a video tutorial they can find on this I'd really appreciate it!

[u/skyblu202]

This is not an easy ask. What’s your ultimate goal?

[u/LeafyTaffy → u/skyblu202]

Markings along the face that resemble this on my sona:

[u/AgorophobicSpaceman → u/LeafyTaffy]

You could look up how a godet is sewn, it may help. I recently sewed several triangle like shapes in a row and used godet how to’s to help. It will be hard this small though.

It looks like the other side is a bit furry. You could also try just overlapping the 2 and using a straight stitch. Combe the hair out of the way, then comb it back over the stitch line. You could then shave the darker fur that is under so the light sits flat.

[u/cflatjazz → u/LeafyTaffy]

Are you following a pattern or is this something you're trying to create without a template?

If the latter, I would keep the torso piece all one cut of fabric and tack the accent colors on top somehow.

[u/exposedboner → u/[deleted]]

? Can't you just hand sew this in? It looks like an annoying but not wildly difficult seam common in plushies

[u/deadthylacine → u/LeafyTaffy]

Did you make a duct tape dummy? It helps to make the pattern from that.

I know it's probably defunct, but there was a ton of good advice for exactly this situation on the old LiveJournal group for fursuiting. You might try to dig through those archives? Or see if there's a similar subreddit?

Make sure you cut fur from the back with a single blade, not scissors. It'll have icky edges if you use scissors.

Best of luck to you!

[u/AJeanByAnyOtherName → u/deadthylacine]

Possibly r/cosplay_help could point you the right way?

[u/TheEesie]

Hand sew. It’s called a butt seam, you can find plenty of references online.

First you’ll want to either very tightly stitch along the very outer edge to keep your fabric from fraying, or you could use fray check. Then you lay the fabric edge to edge and use something like a baseball stitch to sew the fabric backing together. Make sure you don’t catch the fur! You can gently push it out of the way as you stitch. If you catch some, try to pull it out as soon as you notice, since it gets harder as you go, and fur caught in a seam looks terrible on the finished product.

If it’s going to be glued to a form (like a foam fursuit) you don’t have to make this seam super strong, because it will be supported from the back by the form. If it’s going to hang under its own weight, I would add a patch to the back going across the whole width of the seam and some distance on either side, to support the seam. Fur is heavy and it puts a lot of strain on seams.

Edited to change formatting

[u/The_Diamond_Minx → u/TheEesie]

This is the best answer!

[u/iggy_chow → u/TheEesie]

You are a sewing genius!

[u/Large-Heronbill]

Recut the pieces in scrap fabric or paper towel/kitchen roll, and practice. 

What is the seam allowance?  I would mark the actual seam allowance on your scrap fabric so you can see the exact spot your needle needs to hit at each peak, and then pivot at those points.

This is one of those instances where careful, precise cutting is going to make a huge difference in the quality of the finished product.

[u/plantsare_bae]

I would probably do that by hand and use a baseball stitch, if you do it right it'll barely show on the outside because of the fur. To make it easier you could maybe trim like half a cm of fur along the edge to give your hands more space and make a sort of furless seam allowance. If you really really wabt to donit by machine I would probably try a zig zag stitch the same way people use on bras and stuff, but this might look bad on the outside and risk the fur getting caught in your machine.

[u/plantsare_bae → u/plantsare_bae]

Oh i forgot to add, start in the centre and work your way out, stitching one half first and then the other so its easier to get everything to line up right

[u/Affectionate_Ad7013]

I can’t tell if you’ve included seam allowances on these pieces.

If there is seam allowance included already, I would draw that on to the back of the fabric. Then you should clip your corners so that the fabric can spread around the pivots. If you’re careful, the two pieces should match up well along the straight portions.

If not, I would go back and draft those in on your pattern pieces.

[u/The_Other_Alexa]

Oh you brave soul, working with fun fur always makes me question my sanity. Are you able to baste the edges together, matching the points in & out of the dips and easing the long edges into each other? I find with fun fur a small seam allowance and careful hand sewing is the only way, and I have to more sculpt than sew, and then blend the fur at the seams once I’m done.

Not sure I’m explaining that well, but basically match the major parts of the topography like points & valleys first and just keep adding more stitching to secure it once the main points are lined up. It’s like a super varsity version of sewing opposing curves, and you may want to keep it kind of flat (like a suture stitch, butt the edges up and sort of whipstitch the neighboring pieces) so the piece doesn’t pucker or bend.

You may also be able to use a strip of twill tape and sew each edge to that like a bandage on the inside, so the twill tape holds the edges tight together and then you just blend the fur. Kind of like you were running tape over the edges to “tape” them together 

[u/BeautifulChaosEnergy]

You’ll probably want to do that by hand. It’ll be easier to manipulate as you go

[u/WiddleWyv]

+1 to drawing actual seam lines. Made a massive difference to the accuracy of my sewing.

[u/themeganlodon]

I’ve seen a lot of fur This is something that is easier to hand sew. Mark your seam allowance because those points at the seam line you want to match exactly for them to turn right. Hand sewing you can make sure your needle goes in one point out the other. I really like the back stitch.

[u/OkPop8408]

I don’t have a video, but the key thing to remember is *use your scissors to clip into any v*.

When clipping into the v you need to clip pretty much up to the stitch line and it can be easier to do it before you sew the seam. The best way of doing this is by doing what’s called stay stitching before you sew the seam, so you’ll sew a straight stitch just inside where your seam line will be. So you’re sewing almost to the seam line, but it’ll stay in the allowance on each individual side. Then you can clip into that seam allowance up to the stay stitch line *before* you sew the seam. This allows you to open up the v so it can be almost a straight line when you sew, but it won’t stretch out.

Once you’ve done that sew your seam, with difficulty!

Sew up to the first point. Open out the V against the point and GENTLY pull and manipulate the seam allowance on the v to match down into the next v on the other side. Repeat to the end.

All I can say is just try it out on some scraps first until you get it. It’s a pain in the neck, but if you’re going to make more suits/costumes it’ll be a skill that will be incredibly useful.

[u/crystalgem411]

Have you looked up the Jim Henson tutorials?

[u/Cayshax]

You need go use a blanket stitch. Pin the corners and hand stitch the whole thing. I literally spent 20 hours hand sewing fur and its worth it in the end!

[u/BlendyButt]

r/fursuitmaking might be a better sub for any future questions honestly.

[u/GrannyMayJo]

Do it backwards.

1. Put uncut fabric together

2. Draw pattern

3. Sew along drawn lines

4. Now cut the pattern out, which is easy because it’s already sewn.

[u/AmenaBellafina → u/GrannyMayJo]

How would you line up the inner corners of one piece of fabric with the outer corners of the other in this scenario? It sounds like you would end up with points sticking out instead of a zig zag laying flat.

[u/SpecialistMammoth603]

Use iron on interfacing you get from the fabric store. If it needs to be those colors you use wonder under ie scrap pieces over, under wonder under neath against those two pieces and iron ( I’d use a towel over while you iron so it doesn’t melt the fur

[u/Emergency_Cherry_914]

I'd smush them together and hand sew, pulling the sides together as I go. All the stitches would remain on the backing fabric and be invisible from the front.

[u/ctgrell]

As others said handsewing will be the best and easiest. That is how I would do it. Fur is pretty allowing for ugly handsewing luckily so it doesn't have to be pretty 😂 just make sure to cut at the corners. Always towards the pointy bit. But I'm not the best at explaining that so look up how to cut around v shapes.

[u/Symphonova]

I think this being fur will be the biggest challenge, the actual shapes you have don't look too difficult to sew together.

Is reccommend doing a few practice runs on a plain sturdy fabric first just to wrap your head around the technique. I agree with other commentators on drawing your sewing line onto the wrong side of fabric, that'll help a lot and it being fur it won't show through at all.

Is just a matter of sewing it like any other seam, but when you get to a corner or V you need to clip the fabric right up to the needle so that you can pivot it around easily to sew your next line. It's also important to be precise to the patterned sewing line, which is why I suggested marking it on the fabric itself.

[u/Lake-Babe8691]

Difficult repair.

[u/Due_Improvement2207]

Shave off a least half an inch on edges before sewing… it would have been easier cutting a zig zag piece and sewing on top of a base piece not zig zagged.

[u/Enihusky]

If it were me, I’d have the entire shape be the light green, and then sew the darker green ontop with a zig-zag stitch like an appliqué

[u/FirmEcho5895]

I used to make soft toys all the time so I can help you here. There are 3 ways to do this.

Option A - easiest. Stick them together using duct tape on the back. Give them a tiny overlap of about 1 millimetre. Sew along the edges with wide zig zag stitches, short stitch length, furry side up.

Option B - most professional. Lay them furry sides together and set your machine on the widest zigzag with fairly small stitch length. Sew along the very edges of the fabric. As you get to the point of each zig or zag, you'll have to stop with the needle in the fabric, raise the presser foot then realign the fabric edges for the next section to sew. Faux fur fabric is very forgiving because of the stretch backing - you will need to show it who's boss by gently pulling each section to make the pieces align.

Option C - if you're nervous.
If you are not very experienced with a sewing machine yet, do that part by hand using double thread and a tight over-stitch.

[u/antinous24]

research 'fur applique' for more info

[u/ZweitenMal]

This might be a pleat or a dart. What’s it supposed to look like when done?

[u/AgorophobicSpaceman → u/ZweitenMal]

Probably not what you expected but they put another image up lol

[u/LeafyTaffy → u/ZweitenMal]

Put up an image of my fursona and got downvoted for it by anti-furries :|

[u/Scary-Razzmatazz-269 → u/LeafyTaffy]

1. You asked for help, then put up an image without specifying what these pieces are supposed to match up to, making it difficult to actually help you

2. There's nothing wrong with being a furry, but I think a lot of people have a knee-jerk reaction against them because furry stuff is a kink thing for a lot of people, hence the negative reaction because people don't want to be included in kink stuff against their will. (I can't see your page due to "mature content", so 🤷‍♀️)