To be honest, I had never seriously considered using this material on a corset until I received a request from a client (and friend!) for a three-piece burlesque outfit in deep ruby-red stretch velvet. With its sumptuous texture, rich colours, and beautiful draping and movement, stretch velvet makes for dramatic and eye-catching stagewear.

Burlesque costume sometimes requires the merging of corsetry with unusual, difficult, or non-traditional fabrics to create a corset that matches the rest of an ensemble, and stretch velvet is all of the above!

 

This article illustrates the methods I used while working with this particular type of fabric. This time, I’ll be using one of my favourite colours: royal blue. Overall, I’ve found that while stretch velvet can be trickier to handle than fabrics more commonly used in corsetry, it is also unexpectedly forgiving - even easier to work with - in many surprising ways.

About the Fabric

• Synthetic four-way stretch velvet is usually 90% polyester blended with 10% spandex, but these percentages can vary slightly.
• Just like any other velvet, it has a cut pile on the front and is flat on the back.
• It is available in a stunning array of colours, treatments, textures, and finishes; simple solids in everything from pastels to neons to deep jewel tones, panne velour, prints and patterns, burnouts, two-tone, tie-dye, metallic, even spangled with glitter or overprinted with foil designs!

• Typically inexpensive and widely available, I’ve found that solid colours can range from about $5.00-$15.00 per metre (with fancier prints and surface treatments increasing the price).
• Raw edges won’t fray or unravel, but they do shed tiny fibres when cut.
• The grain of the fabric matters on the pieces in a project; light will hit the fabric in different ways depending on its orientation; for a uniform colour, texture, and response to light, make sure that the grain lines are running the same way on all pieces of a project (although pieces can be purposely cut on a different grain for contrast and visual interest).
• Cut edges running perpendicular to the selvedge will tend to curl up a bit, especially when stretched.
• Washing in water can sometimes affect the pile and result in a “crushed velvet” look.
• Pins or basting stitches left in a project for too long may permanently press down the pile; make sure that pinned or basted projects in progress don’t sit neglected for too long, as the surface may become damaged.
• Stretch velvet is fairly resistant to creasing and wrinkling. (I stored mine folded for several months before starting this project, and no harm was done.)
• When ironing, a medium/polyester heat setting should be used so as to avoid burning or melting the fabric.
• Apply heat to the back side only, as direct heat creates marks in the pile on the front.
• As always, test the effects of moisture, heat, and cleaning methods on a scrap piece of fabric before using them on your project.

Before You Begin, Some Considerations

When planning how much fabric to buy, ask yourself whether you’ll be binding the edges of the corset with the velvet. If so, you may need less of it than you would of a more traditional fabric, since the edging strips need not be cut on the bias; they can be cut on a straight grain, either parallel or perpendicular to the selvedge. Although it is a four-way stretch material, one piece may look very different in colour/texture/luminosity from the one next to it if they are not cut on exactly the same grain, (see figures 13 and 14 for illustrations of this phenomenon) so don’t try to jigsaw-puzzle your corset pieces together onto the smallest piece of fabric possible! Purchase some light-duty single-sided fusible interfacing - enough for all the main pattern pieces of your corset - to aid in the initial cutting and pattern piece placement stages.

 

Ideally, the pattern you use should have a ½” (13mm) seam allowance; if it does not already, adapt the pattern so that it does. Smaller allowances make it difficult to baste the seams as is necessary when working with stretch velvet. I chose to leave a 1” (25mm) allowance beyond the centre front edge for the insertion of a busk, and a 1½” (38mm) allowance beyond the centre back edge for the creation of my back lacing panels.

The Number One Problem with Stretch Velvet is...

The number one problem with stretch velvet - indeed, with most velvets - is that their cut pile surface causes the pieces to shift around while being cut and stitched. The methods suggested here will minimize this problem, so that you do not have to struggle with your fabric during the construction process.

Strength Layer

Once you have adjusted the seam allowances on your chosen pattern, cut the strength layer pieces out of your fabric of choice. I used a plain white herringbone coutil. It’s best to avoid a thick or heavy material for your strength layer; seams in velvet fabric are bulky enough on their own!

Velvet Pieces

Cut a piece of interfacing large enough to fit your pattern pieces, all in a row (I used two large pieces of interfacing: one for each side of the corset.) Using a medium/polyester setting - and being careful not to pull or stretch the fabric while ironing - fuse the interfacing onto the back. Lightly draw a waist line perpendicular to the selvedge, then trace the pattern pieces onto the interfacing with a fine tip felt marker.

 

Cut out the pieces with sharp scissors. I trimmed inside the traced lines, so that the velvet pieces ended up being slightly smaller than the coutil pieces; the stretchiness of the fabric compensates for the size difference, and when the material is pulled taut over a coutil base it creates a smoother surface. The fusible interfacing prevents the fabric from stretching and shifting while it is being cut. Avoid stretching the fabric as you trim, since this may distort the pattern and loosen the interfacing. I left the interfacing on the velvet because I appreciate the extra stability it gives and - when I need it - the light-coloured drawing surface it provides. Re-heat the interfacing if it has detached from the velvet during the cutting process.

 

Insert the Busk

The busk area of the red corset was done in black satin, so I had actually never inserted a busk into velvet material before now! This time, I wanted to try encasing the busk hardware in velvet, finding a way to minimize bulk at the centre front of the corset while still achieving a strong closure.

 

I left a full 1” (25mm) allowance of fabric beyond the centre front line. First, I anchored the hardware within the strength fabric. I basted a piece of waist tape to either side. (My waist tape will end up sandwiched between the velvet and coutil, but it can also be positioned on the inside of your corset.) To reduce bulk on the loop side of the busk, I created button-hole openings in the coutil for the loops. For the stud side, holes were gently worked into the coutil with an awl. Baste along the sides of the busk bones to secure the hardware and waist tape.

 

The velvet material can now be laid over top with minimal added bulk. Since stretch velvet does not fray, I simply cut small slits for the busk loops; these are about 75% of the width of the loops themselves. The slits stretch to accommodate the hardware, and the pile disguises the raw edges nicely. I trimmed the interfacing away from the edges of the holes so it would not be visible from the outside. A few discreet hand-stitches inside each loop (below right) will close the holes to give a nice finished look.

 

Poke holes in the stud side of the velvet overlay and work the studs through. Baste along the sides of the busk bones to secure the velvet layer.

 

The thickness of the velvet pile fills in the slight gap between the busk bones, eliminating the need for a front modesty panel!

Combine the Strength Layer Pieces

Sew together the strength layer. I always use a double line of dense stitches on these seams for extra strength. Press the seams open and baste the waist tape into position along the waistline.

 

Bone Channels

This is a good time to discuss different types of boning channels that can be used. In my example, I am using my pattern’s seam allowances to create double boning channels - one channel on either side of each seam. The coutil seams are pressed open, the velvet allowances are trimmed down to ¼” (6mm) and opened in the same way as the coutil, then the two layers are basted directly on top of one another along the seam lines before the channels are stitched.

To use your allowances for single boning channels, fold both coutil allowances over to one side, spread the velvet allowances apart and trim away their excess fabric to within ⅛” (3mm) to reduce interior bulk. Baste the layers together along the seam line and stitch the channel.

 

Separate bone casings can be stitched to the inside or outside surface of the corset after the layers have been combined. External bone casings look very striking against a velvet exterior, but keep in mind that if they are covered in the same velvet fabric they will be quite thick and prominent. Velvet casings are difficult to keep straight and require heavy basting, but you could also try a coordinating or contrasting silk, satin, or other fabric for external casings.

 

 

Combine the Velvet Pieces

When I first tried to combine the pieces of the red velvet corset, I pinned and stitched them as I would any other type of fabric. I noticed that the fabric kept shifting around, no matter how many pins I used or in which direction I pointed them! The major frustration of working with velvet material comes from any attempt to sew pieces of it together with the front/pile sides facing one another. Even when sewing a seam between a piece of non-pile fabric and a piece of velvet fabric, the velvet moves around unless it is basted.

To prevent shifting, two things will help:

1) Ensure that the majority of your seams run parallel to the selvedge (if possible) and that the grain of the fabric is as similar as possible between one piece and the next.

2) Basting, basting, and more basting!

The six samples below illustrate the behaviour of the fabric under a few different circumstances:

 

The left column shows pieces whose seams run parallel to the selvedge. At top left, you can see that the opposing grains of the light/dark sample worked against one another, and the pinned fabric shifted up/down along the seam so the pieces became staggered. The centre left sample was also pinned, but the fabrics are cut on the same grain and there was no issue (although if the seam were angled, curved, or otherwise less than perfectly straight, there would be trouble). The bottom left sample was basted, with a similar result.

The right column’s seams run perpendicular to the selvedge, and this seems to cause more problems. The top right sample was pinned together, and the fabric wandered all over the place as it was being stitched! The middle right sample was basted only on the outer edge, and it shifted dramatically to the right. On the bottom right, a sample sewn while basted together - this time only to the left of where the machine stitches would go; the shift is not quite so dramatic as in the one above it, but it did move to the left quite a bit.

Instead of pinning, I suggest basting all velvet pieces together by hand. Since these seams are curvy corset seams - not straight-up-and-down seams - I used two rows of running stitches, just to be safe. I positioned one row of basting stitches ¼” (6mm) inwards from the edge, and the other ⅝” (15mm) inwards from the edge. Each machine-stitched seam eventually fell between the two rows of hand-basting, which made it impossible for the fabric to shift under the foot.

 

Once all the seams are complete, remove your basting stitches. (I know you spent a lot of time on them, but they’ve served their purpose and are no longer needed.)

Note: Use a stretch stitch for these seams! Although I used stretch stitching on the red corset, I figured it wouldn’t matter if I used a straight non-stretchy stitch on this second set of seams for the blue corset; after all, the velvet would eventually be stitched directly to a non-stretchy strength layer, so why should it require lines of stitching that stretched? In retrospect, I wish I had used a stretch stitch, and the photos of the final corset reveal why.

Baste the Layers Together

Trim away ¼” (6mm) from the velvet seam allowances. This will cut down on unnecessary bulk along the boning channels.

 

Pin the velvet layer to the strength layer so that the velvet is stretched vertically - its edges pulled slightly beyond the edges of the coutil (only by about 1/8” (3mm) maximum). This will reduce horizontal wrinkles and should result in a smoother surface on your corset. Ensure that the seams in the velvet and the coutil are pinned directly on top of one another, then machine-baste along the top and bottom edges.

 

I prefer to hand-baste through the vertical seams to align the top and bottom layers perfectly with one another. Hand-basting allows me to view both sides of the corset as I stitch. I do this so that, when the time comes to sew my boning channels, they will run perfectly parallel to the seam lines on the outside and the inside of the corset - a clean, professional finish on both sides.

 

Bone Channels

Machine-stitching from top to bottom, create ¼” (6mm) bone channels along both sides of each seam. I also created a channel on either side of the busk.

 

If using internal or external bone casings, create your casings and baste them onto the corset with two rows of hand-stitching each, then machine-stitch them into place. After the channels are sewn, remove all but the top and bottom edge-basting stitches.

I folded the 1½” (38mm) fabric allowance at the centre back of the corset as shown, basting it into position and then topstitching to prepare it for the insertion of the back bones and grommets:

 

Measure and Cut the Bones

I cut my bones ¾" (19mm) shorter than each of my channels; I wanted my binding to be ⅜” (10mm) wide on the top and the bottom, so I multiplied the binding width by two and subtracted that from the total length of each channel. I wanted my bones to fit snugly in the channels, with no room at the ends for movement. A length of boning that fills the channel completely from end to end is most supportive, holding the fabric taut vertically. I find this especially important when covering a corset in any stretchy material. (Vertical tension can also be achieved with bone tip flossing on shorter steels.)

Create the Edge Binding, Bind the Bottom, Insert Bones, and Bind the Top

After seeing how easy it is to bind edges with stretch velvet, you may want to use it on all your corsets! Cut strips of velvet, in the same lengths as the edges to be bound. Their width should be a little over three times the desired width of your edge binding. Using a clear quilting ruler and a rotary cutter, and pressing down firmly on the ruler so it holds the fabric in place, will help to create straight pieces and prevent fabric distortion. I wanted a ⅜” (10mm) edge binding, so my strips were cut 1¼” (32mm) wide. Strips cut parallel to the selvedge won’t curl at the edges, but they may appear to be a different colour than the corset panels because of the difference in grain direction. Perpendicular strips will also work, and match the colour of the perpendicular corset panels, but the edges may be a bit curlier and harder to sew. I chose to cut my strips parallel to the selvedge for ease of sewing and for a little bit of colour contrast!

 

Temporarily pin the strips to the bottom edges of the corset, stretching them lengthwise slightly so that they extend beyond the corners by about ½” (13mm). Baste the strips as shown, again using basting stitches on either side of where the machine stitches will run, to prevent the fabric from shifting.

 

Remove the basting stitches after machine-sewing. Trim excess fabric and use tiny hand-stitches to close off the ends; these stitches will disappear into the pile of the velvet. Fold the strips over and hand-sew the inside edges to the back of the machine stitches for a nice straight inner edge.

 

Bones can now be inserted. Pick out the machine basting stitches at the insertion points in the tops of the channels to allow for the passage of the bones, but leave the rest of the basting intact. Once the steels are in place, add the top edge binding in the same way as the bottom. Now all the channels are closed and all the bones are secured.

Set the Grommets

Measure and mark the locations of the grommets - I used a white pencil crayon and pressed down firmly on a hard surface. Poke holes with an awl and set the grommets as usual. Stretch velvet is an especially easy fabric to set grommets into; its elasticity allows the shafts to pass through without too much trouble, and the holes do not fray.

 

Note: my back panels had velvet on the inside as well as the outside. If I were to do this project over again, I would make sure that the grommets were only passing through one layer of velvet, as two layers make the panel quite thick.

The Completed Corset

 

Lace it up, and you’re done! The colour of the velvet on a 3D corset is spectacular, and the play of light on the synthetic fibres is quite dramatic, highlighting and enhancing the overall shape. This fabric really plays up the intensity of light and shadow, and the bone channels and binding really stand out, even though the corset is technically monochromatic and covered entirely with the same material.

As you can see, there are a few wrinkles at the waist. I’m fairly sure this is because I tried to experiment a little, deviated from the method I used on the red velvet corset, and didn’t sew my vertical seams with a stretch stitch this time around; I wasn’t able to stretch these seams vertically when attaching them to the coutil, and as a result the panels in between may not have been able to be pulled taut enough. I also think putting the waist tape on the interior of the corset (rather than between the coutil and outer layer) may have made the surface appear smoother. There is some gapping at the top and bottom in front, but that’s because my too-short busk didn’t quite reach all the way to the corners.

Notes on Embellishment

I wanted to add Swarovski crystals to my corset, so I tested out my adhesive on a scrap piece as practice - The velvet absorbs the glue, but be careful that you don’t overcompensate and use too much adhesive, or it could become visible around the edges of the crystals.

 

Pictured below are a few tests for other common types of surface embellishment when applied to a velvet background:

 

Fine or low-contrast lace overlays tend to disappear into the velvet; as you can see, the black lace isn’t really visible against the dark background, and the finer areas of the white lace don’t show up too well. Use a higher-contrast or a thicker lace (such as venise or guipure lace) so it is more apparent. (Stitches securing lace to velvet become all but invisible against the pile, which is a nice feature of the fabric.)

Flossing on a velvet corset should be done with a contrasting colour of thread, and with a thicker thread than you would typically use against a regular corset fabric. Again, the velvet pile will tend to swallow up finer threads, so colour contrast and a higher strand count will help flossing details stand out. Do a few tests to practice and determine the appropriate number of embroidery thread strands, correct stitch spacing, and the desired appearance of your flossing.

As you can see from the photos throughout the article, regular sewing thread sinks into the velvet pile and is hidden, producing only a very faint suggestion of a stitch line where I have topstitched my bone channels in regular blue polyester thread. Topstitches along the boning channels will only stand out if you use a thicker thread designed specifically for heavy material like jean or canvas. You will need a sewing machine needle with a larger eye to accommodate this type of thread. In the example, both threads I used are the same gold colour, but the regular polyester sewing thread (left) is almost invisible, whereas the heavier topstitching thread is easy to see.

In Conclusion

I hope you’ve enjoyed learning about sewing with stretch velvet! Here is a list of the challenging and beneficial properties of this material, in the context of corsetry:

Challenges:

• Careful attention must be paid to the grain of the fabric, both for consistency in appearance and for ease in construction and assembly.
• Can only be ironed from the back side of the fabric.
• Cannot be left basted or pinned together too long, or else the pins/stitches may leave marks.
• Difficult to draw or make marks on either side of the fabric.
• Should be fused or stabilized to avoid distortion while cutting out pattern pieces.
• Pile causes the fabric to shift around when machine-sewing; basting is necessary before seams can be machine-stitched.
• Thickness of the fabric can cause seams to become quite bulky.
• Fabric pile may obscure fine detail stitching and embellishments - contrasting colours and heavier threads and embellishments must be used if they are to remain visible.

Benefits:

• Looks absolutely stunning!
• Inexpensive and easy to find in a wide variety of colours and finishes.
• Does not fray, pull, tear, wrinkle, or crease easily.
• Pile fills in the gap between busk bones such that no front modesty panel is required.
• Edge binding does not need to be cut on the bias, thus reducing the amount of fabric needed.
• Fabric can be stretched vertically when attaching it to the strength layer of a corset, and edge binding can be stretched lengthwise, to achieve smoother surfaces.
• Easy to work studs, loops, and grommet shafts through holes in the fabric.
• Stitches securing embellishments and appliqués in place disappear into the surface of the fabric and are more easily hidden.

add