Repurposed

For the last 4 years or so, at least once a year, I have been given some real fur coats due to someone that has passed and the gifters weren’t  sure what to do with them. While I don’t condone the killing of innocent animals for their skins for those who feel the need to be noticed at the expense of those innocent animals, I also felt that given the age of these jackets and stole, it seems like it would be dismissing them out of hand to throw them out. If these can be given another purpose, lets do that instead.  These date back decades. I don’t even know the type of fur they are.

The only way I can stand the clothing being made is by those indigenous people who live in the northern and remote parts of the world and need the warm of the skins for survival and in those cases the animals are completely used, for their skins and for food.

This is how they first looked.

A couple of weeks ago, I sat in the middle of the living room floor and dismantled them. The insides on some of them were so old, they had disintegrated and I kept getting sprayed with all manner of debris. It took a good couple of hours but it’s done. I saved the buttons as they are quite lovely and the insides made up two garbage bags on their own. What’s left is a mishmash of pieces. This black one that I have no idea what it was, came apart in a variety of different sized pieces.

Two of them came apart in relatively solid pieces. Still don’t know what they are, but I think they will work for teddy bears.

The last one came apart in many small pieces that I will use for small dolls and ornaments.

I am treating these skins with respect because that wasn’t shown to those animals when these clothes were made. I am also thankful that today, the idea of using real fur is so abhorrent and those who want to wear them have chosen to go the faux fur route.