Making A Faux Sheepskin Rug (Part 2): a house log

So we are back with our second faux sheepskin Hands-on undertaking (after sharing the first one this morning). For this project we in fact visited the biggest most insane fabric store that we’d ever seen while on a recent trip to Charlotte to visit some friends. It is called Mary Jo’s Cloth Store and it is in short a gigantic 32,000 square foot warehouse full of about a million bolts of fabric (we are talking about a football-stadium-sized holy grail of textiles). And it is located right outside of Charlotte (simply off of 1-85 at exit 21).

All I can say is that if they do not have it there, nobody does. Plus their prices are fantastic. We saw designer prints marked down to $10 a yard that go for $19 a yard here at fabric stores in Richmond. Yes please. Here I am among the rows and rows (and rows) of stacked fabric bolts with my cute friend Kristin who showed us around the town (remember we crashed her house for you a while back?).

And here is John doing what he does best. Finding the weirdest thing he can and taking an ironic picture with it (yes that is dental themed fabric with teeth, floss, toothbrushes, and sayings like “smile!” on it). Like I said, if you are looking for something specific they have it at Mary Jo’s.

Anyway, we ended up bypassing all the quirky patterns (cats with yarn? check. dogs in baskets? check) and picked up a yard and a half of vivid nursery fabric to make a modified crib skirt (to obscure the space between our crib mattress and the top of our slide out drawer- stay tuned for those details) along with one yard of fluffy ivory faux fur. We looked through dozens of faux fur options to find the densest, most creamy colored version that looked and felt the most like sheepskin. And the cost? $14.99 for the yard that we grabbed.

The best thing is that it was on one of those especially long bolts so even though it was only 3 feet wide, our big rectangle of fluffiness was nearly six feet long which meant we could get three faux sheepskin throws out of it, making them simply $5 a pop (which is a heckova deal when you consider that Ikea’s low-cost-o real ones are around $25 each). Of course we simply whipped out our homemade paper sheepskin template (see how we made that in this morning’s post) and used a thin sharpie to trace the pattern from our template onto the back of our fabric three times.

Then I did a test cut on the edge of the fabric to be sure fluff would not fly everywhere and the faux fur would not fully unwind or come loose when it was trimmed down to size. Happily simply a few fluffs were freed with each snip (it was sort of like giving the large shaggy fabric a haircut) but nothing too major was released, and even when I tugged on the fur around the edge of my test cut it held steady and did not unravel. Whew. This meant that I could then go ahead and cut along me three sharpie outlines to create three fast and straightforward faux sheepskin throws in a matter of minutes without worrying about binding the edges. Straightforward.

Things were a bit floofy when I was done (picture my black shirt covered in matted sheepdog-like hair) so I tossed all three of our new throws into the dryer on “extra low heat” and let them spin a bit to shake out any and all remaining fuzz. It worked like a charm and when I pulled out our three surprisingly realistic looking $5 faux sheepskins they looked fairly darn good. Certainly good sufficient to be used around the base of my Christmas tree, draped over chairs and the back of my couch, tossed over an ottoman or two, etc. And this dryer de-floofing process seemed to truly be effective since I was no longer covered with white hair every time I brushed up against them. Which is pleasant because that would seriously get annoying.

Now simply as we mentioned that this morning’s Hands-on sheepskin project yielded more structured “rug-like” versions, this approach makes for much floppier and flexible “throw-like” accents. So they are strong for tossing over pieces of furniture to add some pleasant lightness and softness but likely could not hold up on the floor (without creating death-trap slipping scenarios) like our rug counterparts could from this morning. So here is one of our three new furry folks living it up on the storage bench in our dining area (pardon the bluish-white cast, the sky was reflecting through the window- for a more true indication of the real color check out the picture of them in the dryer above).

Here is a close up so you can see how the edges look pleasant and fluffy simply like the real deal. We honestly do not know if anyone would be able to tell that we switched out our real sheepskin for this faux one since they look so eerily similar. Which was totally the goal. Score.

We tossed the second one over the back of a nearby living room chair (we enjoy the layered tone on tone texture that it adds).

And draped the third one over the back of another slipper chair in our den. Does not it look soft and inviting? Who knew three $5 upgrades could add so much to three distinct seating areas in our house?

So that is our second faux sheepskin Hands-on walkthrough for ya. It truly was as plain as hunting down some wooly white fabric (or even a white furry blanket if you see one of those at TJ Maxx, Home Goods or Target), whipping up a free homemade paper sheepskin template, tracing it onto the back of the fabric (or blanket if you go that route) and cutting it out. And do not forget that a swift low-heat spin through the dryer should de-lint it for you. Straightforward peasy.

Or should we say straightforward fleecey? Sorry that was terrible. I am cringing over here. Perhaps we are simply a little too excited about our low-cost-o $5 furry friends (I cannot wait to move them around our house like I used to do with our Ikea ones- they are so flexible and lively). Plus these are WASHABLE (our Ikea versions never were) since they are made of fabric, so that is the icing on the cake. But now it is time to ask you folks what you’ve been making lately. Have you picked up any discount fabric and used it to recover a chair or whip up a swift pillow? Have you made your own faux-fur throws, pillows, or blankets? Do tell.

Psst- Wanna check out our first Hands-on sheepskin walkthrough from this morning? Here is a shortcut.