tip of the day - sewing with velvet
I’ve done quite a bit of sewing in my life… I’ve sewn everything from horse blankets to my duppioni silk wedding. I can make a tailored men’s dress shirt or a bed-size quilt. There are still fabrics that challenge me… I’ve come close to crying when I was sewing a faux-patent leather jacket (hint - use sheets of tissue paper on the seams, you’ll prevent sticking). I’ve broken needles sewing stuffed animals with long-pile fake fur (hand-sewing is the way to go - if you can’t, trim the fur from the seams). Velvet is one of those fabrics that look luscious, but (at least in my experience) is a pain in the tuckus to deal with!
There are a few things that can help…
- First of all, pin like you’ve never pinned before - every inch of the seams!
- Don’t cut it out without checking which way the pile runs. Run your hand down a length of it - one direction should feel much smoother than the other. Mark that direction on the wrong side or selvage.
- Walking feet (if you have one for your machine) or Teflon feet can stop some of the shifting and puckering that is a common problem with velvet, especially with rayon blends
- Avoid ironing completed seams. The fabric will permanently crease and you’ll see the seams marked on the right side.
- If you’re very careful with an iron, you can fuse the seams together, using 1/2″ wide seam bonding tape. Just make sure to sew a wide enough seam allowance so they fusible doesn’t show through.
- Or, of course - you could just do what I’m doing and hand-sew the whole thing :-) Time consuming, but so much easier.
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POSTED IN: Fabric, How To, about me, sewing, techniques, tip of the day
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