I bought an old jacket with fur lining, to use the fur under my cloak. The unpicked fur smelled like sh.... so I decided to wash it. Bad bad bad. The fur became like a paper very stiff and unpleasent.

Never ever wash fur in water. It will become hard as a paper. The natural fat in the skin will disappear.

But there are ways to do it. Believe it or not.

Wash it in methylated spirit!!

Put the fur in a bucket or similar. Cover it with methylated spirit. The best place for this operation is to be outside, because it smells and is I think a little bit unhealthy. Let the fur in the spirit fot at least a few hours. Squeeze very softly ,and let it hang outside so that most of the methylated spirit will come off.

You have to blow dry the skin when it is still wet, this is very important. Use the backside of an elder vacumcleaner or a dryblower, no heat on.

I used a brush very softly to lift up the hairs in the fur. You will give the fur a " fluffy" treatment this way by blowing and brushing the fur. The fur has not lost one singel hair because of the methyladed spirit!! but the sh.... smell is gone.

Cut fur

If you are going to cut the skin or fur, do it from the backside, not from the the hairy side. If it is a bigger piece of skin or fur that is made of smaller skins hemed together try to avoid along in the middle of hems. Cut out your peices with a rasor blade or a very sharp knife. If you use a pair of sissors you will cut of the hairs, and it will look very unatural. To sew in skin is rather easy, you will not have to hemstich. Use a needle specially made for skin( uselly one edge of the needle has a cutting side) When you have sewed together two parts turn and " fluff" the hem, this way the hem will become invisible.