Washing faux fur

Polyester faux fur has a great advantage. It can be machine washed! I make a lot of bears out of high quality faux fur that is polyester rather than acrylic. I look for North American polyester faux fur with a good quality and with a tight knitted back. I decided to take four samples and test them out.

 

Polyester and acrylic fur before wash

I chose four of the most used of my furs. From the top left going clockwise I have: a Wolf: black base with white guard hair, Desert Fox Gold: dark brown base with gold fur tips, chocolate luxury shag fur and Spotted wolf: brown with tan spots. I bought all of them from Fabric.com

https://www.fabric.com/buy/0317412/faux-fur-wolf-brown-black
https://www.fabric.com/buy/0260757/faux-fur-desert-fox-gold
https://www.fabric.com/buy/dt-030/faux-fur-spotted-wolf-brown-beige?cm_vc=756b1813-cbc1-43b3-84bd-29889bf8fb7b
https://www.fabric.com/buy/bu-292/faux-fur-luxury-shag-brown?cm_vc=756b1813-cbc1-43b3-84bd-29889bf8fb7b

The samples were placed into an old pillow slip that I could seal shut. More to protect my washer from loose fur than to protect the fur. I think it is a great idea that if you want to wash a teddy, that you place him in an old pillow case and seal him in it to help protect him.

Old pillow case to wash fur in.

I placed the pillow slip straight into the washing machine. I have a front loader so it is more gentle on the washing cycle than a top loader with an agitator. I set the machine to normal wash, cold wash and cold rinse and added the HE cold wash type of washing detergent. HE means basically High Efficiency so you do not need much. The cold wash and cold rinse I felt to be important as faux fur does not like heat. The machine went through the normal wash and rinse cycle of about 58 minutes.

Faux fur straight from washing machine

As soon as the wash was done I removed my pillow case and had a look at the fur. Very bedraggled but still intact. I shook them out and placed them in a sunny spot to dry. Just look how bedraggled the chocolate fur was !

After a couple of hours I checked them. They were dry so I brushed them and voila:

Dry and brushed faux fur

They washed beautifully and were not damaged in the process. You cannot tumble dry faux fur! It will melt at that temperature. Just remember a beloved bear may need more than a couple of hours for the stuffing and fur to dry. That is my next challenge- wash a full bear. I do believe that if he is placed on a towel, in the sun, to soak up the rays for a while (turning over of course) that he will be fine. Just remember though- safety joints can be washed, Hardboard and cotter pin joints cannot be washed as the wood will swell and deteriorate. If you are not sure how your bear was assembled then do not risk loosing a loved creation. Just surface wash. I found Build-a-Bear has a great solution you can spray on and wipe off to clean a faux fur friend.

I also finally listed my mohair bear:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/208026595/mohair-artist-bear-cream-s-finish-fully?

Have a look and tell me what you think!