Holiday Dressing with Stretch Velvet

Nothing says “Happy Holidays” more than some velvet. There is just something about this fabric that conjures up feelings of wintertime mixed with luxury…especially in deep royal blue. Luckily, it is also one of the hot fabrics of the minute with odes to the 90s still in full fashion swing.

Fabric

The nap of velvet gives the fabric its trademark characteristic. The soft texture lends some weight, which makes it a great fall/winter substrate. With the popularity of velvet, there are a lot of options currently out in the market. There are non-stretch and stretch varieties which is great based on what you would like to make…whether it be a structured blazer, tights or a dress.

I was able to get this gorgeous Royal Radiance Velvet Spandex from my friends over at Pine Crest Fabrics. When they asked if I wanted to try out one of their velvets, I just couldn’t say no (even with a month full of other sewing commitments.) I knew that this velvet would be special since Pine Crest is a company that specializes in high performance fabrics…and friends, this Royal Radiance did not disappoint. You can find similar fabrics at Fabric.com here.

What makes this fabric incredible is the base cloth. I’ve made a few garments which you can read about here, using other Pine Crest athletic fabrics and I knew the velvet’s “wrong side” would be silky smooth…and it was! The 4-way 10% Spandex stretch made it ideal for a form-fitting dress and it has great recovery – so the dress keeps its shape. Even with the heavier weight of this fabric, it remained cool and breathable which is key when wearing this fabric out to a party.

Velvet Tips

Pay attention to the nap. Make sure it feels smooth running down the garment and cut pattern pieces with this in mind…because you know you will want to pet yourself!
If you do need to iron, use a towel as a pressing cloth to avoid crushing the pile. (There was hardly any wrinkling with my dress, so I luckily didn’t have to press often.)
There is a little mess cutting into velvet. Run a sticky roller on the velvet immediately after your cuts to keep the fuzz at bay.
Use a stretch or jersey needle with stretch velvet.

The Pattern

For my holiday dress, I used McCall’s #M7429. Variation B was exactly what I wanted for my stretch velvet. I wanted something more form-fitting, but NOT body-con. (I am not a skin-tight kinda gal.) This front knot and half-wrap design is perfect for camouflaging one of my trouble spots, but is also visually appealing. Only a solid fabric could really show off this design element and using my Royal Radiance just made it SO much better.

No lie…I was definitely tripped up by the knot. I was able to get pretty far with the limited illustrations and instructions known with the Big 4 pattern companies. Luckily, I found this video by Brittany Jones to help guide me through.

These Big 4 patterns also tend to allow more ease into their recommended sizes, so I was a bit concerned on what size to cut. I went with the pattern’s recommendation and feel like I could have probably gone down one size because there is quite a bit of fabric hanging under my arms and into the bust. The shoulders could be cut in 1″ on each side as well. Other modifications I made:

Graded out one size in hips down to the hem, including the back pieces
Narrowed the sleeves 1″ (folded) at the wrist and graded to the elbow
Shorted sleeves by an additional 1″
Increased hem by 1.25″
Deepened the neckline by an additional 1/4″
Tacked the wrap skirt into the knot with a few hand-stitches to keep it straight