Hi All, This is a great community I stumbled upon. It's always nice to see people of similar interest congregate in an online community. I work for a company that provides online forums for corporations so forums are not new to me, however, a bear making forum is! I'm excited to get to know you all and appreciate your bear making knowledge.

The reason I'm here is because I want to use the teddy bear synthetic fabrics to make socks for my fiance. Ok, I know... that seems weird. Admittedly it is kinda weird. To make a short story shorter, my fiance LOVES fuzzy socks. One day we had a plush teddy bear laying around and she put her bare foot on it. Then she said "hey, this feels great... better than my fuzzy socks.". So here I am, secretly making fuzzy socks for my fiance. It's going to be a Valentine's day gift. This idea might work... it might not but I want to at least try since it'll be a cute thoughtful gift. A background of what I'm looking for... I'm looking for the softest material by touch that is the least abrasive to sensitive skin. These two properties are very important to me.

Now since I'm around forums 40hours/week for my job one of my pet peeves is when someone joins the forum, asks a question that could already be answered by reading previous threads then never coming back. I'm not one of those people. I prefer to find my answers through the existing knowledge base but it seems that my questions differ from what is asked in this category. This is where you lovely people come in... I have a few questions regarding synthetic furs and would appreciate your help. Thank you in advance for listening.


My first question is, in your opinion which type of fur in the catalog is the most soft to the touch while being the least abrasive to sensitive skin and why?

My second question is, since these will be socks how does one wash synthetic fur while retaining it's soft silking touch? I was thinking of a comb to use to fluff it up after a gentle cycle? Does one use a dryer or hang dry? I understand that whenever you wash synthetic fur some of the hair will come out and some of its soft properties may be lost with each cycle.

My third question is, does the pile length generally affect the softness or abbrasiveness? If so, in what way?

To wrap it up, How do the furs available at Edinburgh differ from store bought faux fur?

Again, I appreciate your help. I'm excited to hear what the community has to say. Thank you ever so kindly

What a cool idea!! I may have to make some for myself ;0)

I'm not sure about the washing part. That may be some trial and error for you. You don't want to use heat dry on these synthetics though I'm thinking...

The synthetics here are denser, fluffier and softer. Also, they have a woven backing instead of a knit backing which I LOVE!

I'm not sure which I'd say are softer -- I do love the alpaca for fuzzy softness though. Yes, that is NOT a synthetic... but still ;)