Sewing Velvet, Velveteen, Panne Velvet and Velour

Liz Haywood shares her tips for sewing with velvets......

Velvet, velveteen, panne velvet and velour are all fabrics with a short, dense pile and delightfully soft texture. They work best with simple styles.

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EACH?
Velvet, the most luxurious of these, is a classic for winter evening wear.  Velvet can be made from silk, polyester, acetate or rayon. Silk velvet is usually softer than synthetic velvets. It combines beautifully with satin, heavy lace, chiffon, taffeta and beading.  

Velveteen is made of cotton to imitate velvet.  It's not as plush as velvet, but it's less expensive and relatively easy to sew.  It has a shorter, denser pile than velvet. It combines well with many fabrics such as cotton, denim and wool.

Panne velvet is a velvet-like fabric with the pile pressed flat in one direction, giving a shiny surface with almost a wet look. It sometimes has a knit base. It's often used for costumes.

Velour is a casual fabric, which can be woven or knit.  It's sometimes used for tracksuits (think Jennifer Lopez early 2000s!) and is very comfortable.

STORING VELVET
If the velvety fabric is woven,hang it up in preference to folding it.  You can clip it onto a skirt hanger until you're ready to use it.  

CUTTING VELVET
Often we cut out by folding the fabric in half and cutting the two layers together, but with deep pile velvets, the layers can slip against each other with the scissor blades. The solution is to cut out the pieces singly, tracing or pinning them on the wrong side of the fabric.

For all velvety fabrics, the pattern needs to be laid so the pile runs in the same direction for all pieces. Otherwise, the colour will look different.  

INTERFACING
All velvets require sew-in interfacing, rather than fusibles since the pile will be crushed under the iron when fusing.

SEWING VELVET
The biggest challenge with velvety fabrics is sewing them. The two napped surfaces will slip against each other and move side-to-side and back-to-front.

Some people stop the layers from slipping by pinning in two different directions, as shown, and carefully sew up to the pins. Try a walking foot, if you have one.

Another way is to hand baste the seam first to hold it, then sew the seam by machine.  If you baste the seam using short perpendicular stitches as shown, the fabric will hold fast in both directions.  Pull the basting out after sewing.

For either way, stitch the seam in the same direction as the nap runs. 

Your overlocker might slip as well. Zig-zag might work better, or even binding the seams with satin bias binding.

Should you topstitch velvet? Try a sample to see. Velveteen is usually fine - topstitch in the direction of the nap.

Note that any unpicking will mark the velvet, so only sew seams when you're sure you won't need to do alterations.  f you need to sew the seams together to do a fitting, baste them by hand using a running stitch and don't press them.

On the subject of pressing...
PRESSING
Press velvety fabrics with great care, so you don't crush the pile.  Use a scrap of the same velvet underneath, right side up, and put the area you're pressing right side down on top of it.  Press lightly with steam.

Cutting and sewing velvety fabrics can be messy. The fabric produces fluff and crumbs. Afterwards, you'll need to vacuum your sewing area, machines and yourself!

Lastly, slow down and enjoy the process! Sewing velvety fabrics takes care and empathy with the fabric, and the results can be very rewarding!