Making a velour zip-up jacket

 

I've always enjoyed making things from fabrics that they wouldn't normally be made from (like this shirt top made out of jersey) and having seen a resurgence of velour type fabrics recently I thought it would be fun to make an item of clothing from a fabric which is often used for upholstery. I chose a deep jewel green colour velour (the colour way is called 'petrol') for this project which seemed like a good fit for a zip-up jacket.

This project actually started off with the assumption that it would be a zip-up hoodie, but the structure of the fabric makes it feel much more like a jacket. I actually used the same self-drafted pattern that I made this black zip-up hoodie from, which goes to show how different the same pattern can look when made from two different fabrics. The pattern still worked really well for this fabric, although I should have widened the sleeves slightly as they are a little tight when made from a non-stretch fabric. Because it's so difficult to find matching ribbing I just used the same fabric for the hem band and cuffs on this jacket, but I think the velour would have also paired well with a rib for those.  

The only change I made from my black hoodie was to add in some pockets. I got this idea from a cropped RTW hoodie and, whilst the pockets aren't functional as they're so high up, I really like how they look. It's also a nice addition to a plain fabric as they add a bit of interest, especially with the topstitching. Rather than drafting a disproportional pocket I used my pattern piece from the Tilly and the Buttons Stella Hoodie (which I've made before here, here and here but without the pocket) and cut it in half to allow the zip to run through it. The pockets are fully lined which is a nice finish to have but they were almost impossible to attach! Because the velour is a fairly heavyweight fabric having a double layer for the pockets and then a double layer for the hem band made the topstitching around the bottom really tricky. It probably would have been better to turn the pocket fabric under and hem with this kind of fabric.

As always I enjoyed focusing on the smaller details like topstitching. Like the pockets, adding some rows of stitching adds a bit of interest to the plain fabric. The hood is also fully lined (unlike the pockets I think that was necessary, the wrong fabric would have showed) which creates a bit of stiffness but that will probably soften with wear.

Zips can often make or break a garment (literally, I was so sad when the zip on these jeans broke!) so they're definitely worth spending extra on. I've found that YKK zips are a really great quality and used one with silver teeth for this make. As I mentioned above it's really hard to match colours online, especially with a colour like this green one which isn't a classic shade. I decided to go for a green zip which seemed like the closest match but the shades were completely different and I reckon it would have been better to go for black or grey. 

It wouldn't usually matter so much if the zip isn't a perfect colour-match but for a jacket like this one the zip tape would have been visible whenever the jacket wasn't zipped up. To fix this problem I made some bias binding out of the velour fabric and sewed it around the zip tape. As a bonus it also makes the inside super neat, although I had to hand sew it down which took forever!

I think I must have been unusually distracted while making this jacket as it I had to unpick quite a few sections (I actually forgot to add the pockets when I first sewed in the zip!) but it was a really enjoyable project. I definitely think that velour can work for clothes and not just cushions, and I'm very pleased with how this jacket turned out. Looking back through some of my older makes I realised that I've actually used velour before on a dressmaking project - I made this dress back in 2017. I'm still proud of that dress but it's also really nice to see how much my sewing has improved, this jacket was a self-drafted pattern and is much more suited to something I would wear on a daily basis. 

[This fabric was given to me by Minerva in exchange for a blog post]