Oh the beauty of luxurious, silky smooth velvet!
Oh the headache of trying to make something with it!
Most costumers I’ve run into have fallen in love with at least one garment made from velvet. It’s so beautiful. One of my favorites is the burgundy cut velvet one from the Kyoto Costume Institute.
Would I love to have that dress? Of course. Would I love to make that dress? Maybe… IF I could find a cut velvet that was affordable AND if I wanted to deal with the frustrations that come with sewing this gorgeous material.
But at least I already have some tips in place for when that time comes. Perhaps you’d like them in your arsenal too? Check them out…
My first attempt at wrangling velvet was my very first “historical” costume – a royal blue Italian Renaissance dress from a Simplicity pattern. You know the one. (Hint: it’s based on a costume from the film Ever After.)
That blue velvet caught my eye and I just HAD to make something from it. I picked up a lot of experience sewing that gown! Here are a few things I learned for future projects.
Cutting Velvet:
1. For a darker, richer color, cut your pieces with the pile running UP the garment. This means if you run your hand down the garment from shoulder to hem, it will feel rough to the hand.
2. Cut all garment pieces with the nap running in the same direction (so you don’t end up with dark green on your left side and light green on the right).
3. Lay your pattern on the back of the velvet to cut, as opposed to opening the fabric up with the hairs facing y0u. (This will help calm the temptation to lie across your cutting space ON the velvet. Let’s keep it neat for the garment.)
4. Cut one layer at a time. So important! Folding your velvet fabric so you cut two layers at once (done most often with other fabrics) will make you to toss the pieces out the window or burn them in the fireplace because they will be so misshapen.
5. Use a rotary blade to cut the pieces. Brilliant!
6. Clear your table of all other fabrics, trims, and sewing tools before cutting velvet.
Because the nature of velvet is short fabric hairs on top of a backing, cutting through velvet will disperse all cut hairs everywhere. Don’t breathe in heavily or cough or sneeze near your cut velvet. As soon as you are finished cutting, clean up your area with a damp towel and vacuum to capture all the random hairs. Be especially careful if you have asthma, contact lenses, pets and a fear of being covered with tiny crawly bugs.
7. Pulling on the back of velvet can drag the hairs out of shape and deform the pile direction and length. Handle gently.
Sewing Velvet:
8. Use fine thread (silk or thin cotton).
9. Loosen the tension on your machine and reduce the presser foot pressure.
10. Hand baste seams along the seam line with short, uneven basting stitches.
11. Use Wonder Tape™ to match your seamlines. Place a strip near the edge on the right side of your velvet piece; lay the other side to be sewn together on top of the tape. Sew.
12. If working with a very high pile velvet, you can trim down the pile hairs along the seam allowance before sewing. (This is similar when sewing with faux fur.)
13. Hand baste any underlinings to your velvet just inside your seamline. This will allow for easier removal of the basting stitches. Work from the underlining side when basting. Pin the velvet and underlining carefully, wrong sides together.
Pressing Velvet:
14. Steam is your friend when pressing velvet. Avoid placing the hot iron directly onto your velvet.
15. Always press from the wrong side (unless you WANT to make flat designs on the top surface).
16. Use a wire board and place velvet face down onto it. The hairs will fall into the spaced wires allowing you to gently press the back surface of the fabric.
17. If you don’t have a wire board you can use the same technique with a scrap piece of your velvet. (This is the trick I use.)
Make sure your scrap is a good size so you don’t have to move it too much (but don’t feel you have to cover your entire ironing board unless you want to).
Place the scrap face side up and place your velvet garment piece face side down on top, matching the nap direction on both pieces. GENTLY press the back of your garment piece with steam.
18. To press seams, first press the sewn seam flat to set the stitches (use the point of the iron plate and press the seam allowances up to the stitch line but not into the garment); open the seam allowances and hold the iron close to steam; remove iron and gently press the seam open with your fingers or a wood pressing tool until cool.
19. Use a medium weight press cloth.
20. To revive crushed velvet (not panné type fabric as that is factory treated), hold the piece over a steaming iron or tea kettle to lift the hairs back up. Use a toothbrush to gently lift the hairs after steaming.
Supporting Velvet:
21. Underlining fabrics to flat line your velvet include: coutil, drill, ducking, stiff muslin, poplin, crinoline, silk organza and cotton organdy. Hair cloth (the modern equivalent of period horsehair fabric) can be used as well. Use the sew-in kind.
22. It is not recommended to use fusible (iron-on) interfacing on velvet due to the high heat iron setting needed to melt the adhesive on the interfacing.
23. If you want a stiff, structured velvet bodice, stick with a firm underlining such as coutil or denim/twill and add multiple bones to the underlining before flatlining onto the velvet pieces.
24. Discover the possibilities of using 2 layers of organza or organdy to flat line your velvet pieces.
I don’t sew much with velvet. But having these tips handy sure does keep my frustrations at bay and my temper calm. I also remind myself to SLOW DOWN so I don’t mess up this really expensive fabric. (Velvet shows its tortured self when attacked with a seam ripper!)
Have you learned some velvet sewing tricks the hard way? What items have you made with this beautiful textile? Post below.
You look absolutely STUNNING, That blue velvet dress is drop-dead gorgeous! Velvet is my favorite fabric in the world and I’m getting ready to start a simple (modern) dress in silk velvet from Liberty’s of London. Wanted to brush up on tips before beginning and happened on this informative site. Thank you.
Paula
Thanks Paula!
I should have read your comments before attempting a simple straight velvet long skirt!what a nightmare . took forever to complete . and front and back are different shades cause I did not follow cutting rules of velvet . Thanks for the great tips
Thank you for all the advice. Right now my main fear is cutting it. I am going to make a quilt with different colors if I can.
I sewed a Santa suit with dry clean only velvet and I did go the extra effort and expense to have it cleaned before I cut it. The velvet we buy is supposed to be color fast, but really, it depends on the cleaner. My first suit went to the cleaner and pink fur returned. So because you have red red next to pristine whites, dry clean before cutting and find a cleaner and give a test swatch of fur sewn to velvet for them to clean. I took many Santa hats to different cleaners before I found one who did not give me back a smurf pink fur Santa hat.
Try using temporary fasteners for the fur. Remove for cleaning. Snap tape or velcro.
How do you sew on the snap tape to the fur? Won’t is make 2 lines in the fur???
I’d recommend hand tacking the snap tape in place with prick/pick stitches.
Is there anything that you need to do to prep or pre-wash velvet? I’m about to embark on my first velvet garment, a santa suit. I know this is a historical page, but this is the best information I’ve found all night. I’m used to washing cottons and linens before you cut, should I do the same with velvet or is it only dry clean afterward?
The best tip is to pre-treat the fabric as you would the final garment. If you intend to wash the velvet, do so before you cut & sew. However, I’d recommend dry cleaning. That said, you don’t necessarily need to dry clean beforehand. I treat my silks the same: iron straight from the store then sew, and then dry clean the garment as needed.
Thank you for great advice! I had no idea my mission to make a simple enough coat out of velveteen was going to be such a mission. My fabric is an old cotton curtain. I have a question someone may be able to help me with: I have bought a traditional non-fuseable hair interlining and have been recommended a to use a non-woven fuseable stay tape with it. This would in theory mean that I wouldn’t need to hand sew the hair interlining along the front seam. It would be fused on the seam allowance with a few mm overlap across the seam line. Would this work? And similarly as stay on the shoulder and arm hole seams?
Great article, and great questions and answers. I think I’m building up the courage now to actually cut into this beautiful blue-white velvet that I bought on sale with no idea what to make out of it. I’ve had a pattern for a beautiful dress to make of it and some pale blue silk chiffon forever now, as well as a well fitted mockup, but I couldn’t bring myself to cut those gorgeous fabrics, particularly the velvet. I hate working with the stuff, but that velvet has been mocking me with its beauty. That dress *will* be made! Thanks again for all the wisdom, Jennifer and everybody else!
I find a lot of tips & instructions for sewing velvet on a machine…but I hand sew virtually everything. Other than the tips for cutting out is there anything I should know for handsewing velvet?
With hand sewing on velvet you have a lot more control which is a very good thing. Use lots of pins, but only within seam allowances. And take your time.
Thanks. 🙂
Something I have learned this week sewing with velvet…It frays like mad. Its driving me to distraction. Fraying faster than I can stitch and pleat.
When using really thick-pile velvet, I will use my serger to put a rolled edge hem on it, so it doesn’t fray. It’s been amazing (though you do need to clean out the server innards with canned air and a chamois after EVERY piece. I swear, those tiny fibers are like glitter….)
After utilizing every method I could find in the making of boyfriend’s velvet slops, I broke down and bought a walking foot for the doublet. Just tested it last night and could almost cry with happiness! I also used spray on basting adhesive. I’d tried chalking the outline of the pattern, but that shifted, too. I just spray the adhesive, lay the pattern on the back of the velvet, and cut with normal scissors, or lay the cut interlining glued to the velvet and cut. So far, so good!
Love the stamp/emboider idea.
Well…this is coming from another angle entirely, but I learned a long time ago that you can do some AWESOME things with decorating velvet using rubber stamps. You put the stamp rubber side UP on the ironing board, position the velvet over top of it, and then press with your iron for thirty seconds or less. This sets the design in the stamp into the velvet permanently. Then you can do interesting things like embroider inside the stamp lines and add jewels and things. Or just use the stamp as decoration! I did this for an early drawstring bag project and got lots of compliments on it.
I knew of the stamp idea but then embroidering inside the motif sounds really cool! Thanks for the idea.
So, this is usable only if you are using cotton velvet and plan on washing before and after sewing, but it works so well. Water soluble fabric stick glue for holding in place those sections that will not pin right. Let it dry completely and then when you have finished, you can hand wash and get all the glue out!
Jennifer, this is a great tip I learned from a Susan Khalje’s class on Crafty titled The Couture Dress. There are these small forked (two-tine) pins manufactured by Clover; they come in a small green plastic box and can often be found in the quilting section. They are amazing as far as keeping stuff where it needs to be; quilters use them to match points in quilting blocks and I’ve used them for velvets with great success. It’s something about the two pins in close proximity that works even better than two separate pins; don’t know why, but I’ve had great luck with them.
I’ll have to look for them! Great tip. Thanks. And you can’t beat learning from Susan Khalje!
Oooh – thanks for the tip – I live just down the street from a quilting shop and I know just the ones you’re talking about!
I invested in a walking foot for sewing velvets and plaids. It was worth every penny I spent on it. No more sliding seams, no hours of ripping out wonky seams and better yet no giving up a machine sewing and hand sewing an Elizabethan with a 3 foot long train by hand because it was actually easier that way.
I have dust allergies, so sometimes when cutting velvet/velveteen and ALWAYS when serging the edges, I use a dust/pollen mask (like you would use for mowing the lawn).
I keep them in my sewing tool kit so that I can easily find one when I need it.
It makes a huge difference and keeps me from being miserable the next day or two.
Last time I tried velvet I ended up with sore throat, runny nose and a cough for a week afterwards. I think I will invest in a dust mask.
Good idea!
When finished or getting it out of the closet after a stint in storage Hang up you garment in the bathroom and have a hot shower. This should remove any light creasing.
If someone is making a garment with a more soft silhouette, such as a 1920s/30s style, flannel is also good for using as underlining the velvet. You can get really inexpensive kids pj flannel on sale at Joann’s and if your fashion fabric velvet is black and your lining is black, no one will ever know there are moo cows on the flat lining 🙂
I have made several Collegium costumes for the local High School and have found that to use pins every inch to inch and half on all seams makes it easier to keep the velvet from walking. It takes awhile to put all the pins in but it cuts out all the hand sewing and works fine.
Thank you for the great tips for working with velvet! Several listed I have used successfully and just add two more: try a Teflon roller foot or walking foot when sewing velvet and cover your ironing board with a fluffy towel if you do not have a velvet board.
Hi Jennifer,
I learned a lot from your tips on sewing with velvet, have printed them out and will hang the list in the sewing room.
Think I’ll practice with making doll clothes first. I have a granddaugher who is still an infant. This will give me plenty of time to practice.
Thanks, Janet.
Wonderful tips, thank you! I am a newbie to historical sewing, but will definitely bookmark these tips for when I am ready to take on a velvet dress challenge. 🙂
You can also iron velvet on top of a terry cloth towel if you don’t have a needleboard.