The first time I tried sewing with velvet, I discovered there’s a troublemaker side to this soft, luxurious one-directional fabric. As I stitched, I found my seam drifting incorrigibly to one side, ending up with a 1/4″ offset between the two pieces of fabric, which I had to tear out and start over. Over years of working with this fabric, I’ve learned some tricks to ‘tame the beast’.

Mohair, velour, corduroy and boucle are other examples of fabrics with nap that can be difficult to work with. To use these fabrics successfully in your DIY upholstery project, here are three important things to know that will make working with napped fabrics easier:

  1. mark direction of nap and cut all pieces in one direction
  2. use pins (or staples) to prevent slipping when sewing together
  3. orient nap direction downward on vertical surfaces, and to the front on horizontal surfaces

Watch this video to learn more:

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