I have long been a fan of the silk velvet tiger I would spy in design magazines over the years. So when I finally decided to do some home decorating, I didn’t want just any old pillows.

There are only a few high-end fabric manufactures that make a tiger print in silk velvet and procuring it may be a challenge financially.  Joni Webber of the blog Cote de Texas did a fun article on this fabric  “When is a good thing too much?”

In the article Ms. Webber states “Silk Velvet Tiger is a real luxury.  The Scalamandre is the most popular and one of the most expensive – retailing up to $2,000 a yard, wholesale is less – of course.  You can find yardage on Ebay for a large discount, but it probably will not be not enough fabric to cover a large sofa.  Still – would you want to?”

I had no intentions of covering a couch, although I have seen some that look pretty cool. I just wanted to make some pillows for my living room.

 I did notice that William Sonoma Home, which has a lovely selection of pillows, sells a Scalamandre Le Tigre pillow. But, I did not like that the back of the pillow was covered in a different fabric, black cotton velvet. 

I ended up finding a Lee Jofa silk velvet remnant on Etsy that was just enough to cover two pillows front and back. The remnant was definitely pricey but still less expensive than two pillows from William Sonoma. I will admit that I was a little nervous that the fabric on Etsy was a knock-off and might turn out to be a polyester velvet. When I opened the package, I didn’t even have to see it. I could feel that it was a soft silk velvet.

Velvet describes the way the fiber content is woven i.e. pile weave. It can be woven from various fibers such as cotton, polyester, wool and silk. As you can imagine, the different fabric contents of velvets all have a distinct look and feel.

Velvet is more costly than flat-woven fabrics because it requires more yarn and steps to produce it. To make velvet, yarn is woven together on a loom between two layers of backing and the fabric is then split down the middle. This creates two identical pieces with a raised pile. Silk velvet is the oldest and most luxurious, and it’s invention dates back to the Italian Renaissance (13th century). In fact, the word velvet comes from the Italian word “velluto” meaning shaggy.

Well now that I had the beautiful silk velvet, how was I supposed to sew it into pillowcases?? Price per yard, this was the most expensive fabric purchase I had ever made. (Shh! Don’t tell my husband). I was definitely worried about cutting into it. However, my trusty friends at Textile Fabrics in Nashville gave me some great insight for sewing professional looking pillows.

At first, I was just going to sew three sides by machine and then sew the last side closed by hand using a slip stitch. Then one fellow sewer chimed in “what will you do if someone spills red wine on it?” Hmm, she’s right. I did not want to get in a row with my husband over these pillows – I knew he would be the one doing the spilling! Also, the fabric is very thick. Hand sewing would be a bear. 

My friends recommended an invisible zipper for the closure instead. I don’t usually use invisible zippers in my couture garments. They just aren’t sturdy enough for one thing. However, I figured for a pillow they made sense. Even though I hadn’t sewn one in years, I decided to give it a try. Here is the result.

Grrrr!

If you want to attempt to sew your own custom silk pillows, read further for the steps I followed.

• Lay fabric flat and identify the center of the motif you want on your pillow, consider both front and back and the direction of the nap.
• Measure the pillow insert you intend to cover. I ended up making my pillow case about 1/2 inch smaller on all sides than the measurements of the insert. You want the pillow cover to fit tightly. Remember you can always take more in if it isn’t tight enough, but you can’t let out the seam, not without marring the velvet. 
• Use these measurements to determine where to mark your seam line (use a chalk wheel) on the wrong side of the fabric. Before cutting, don’t forget to add seam allowances to all sides – I didn’t have much wiggle room but I recommend a larger seam allowance (1 inch or more) if you can spare it. 

• Also make sure the nap of the front piece runs in the same direction as the nap in the back – i.e. if I flipped the pillow on either side, the smooth nap of the velvet runs down towards the zipper.  Mark the bottom edge of the front and back pieces (with a pin or thread) where the zipper will go so that you won’t forget the nap direction.

• Iron the the invisible zipper flat. Unzip the zipper and use the tip of the iron to press the coils and tape flat where it tends to want to curl.
• Lay the pressed zipper open and face down on the right side of the bottom edge of one of your cut pillow pieces. The teeth of the zipper should be facing in and aligned with your seamline. The tape is on the outside.
• Hand baste the tape of the zipper to the pillow piece
  Next sew permanently the zipper in place by machine using a long stitch length and zipper foot.  You can back stitch. 

• Close the zipper. Then align the other side of the zipper tape to your other piece of fabric – right side of fabric facing up, zipper still facing down (teeth to inside along seamline). 
• Hand baste zipper tape to fabric. Sew permanently by machine.

• Open the zipper. Remove hand basting stitches. Sew by machine as close to the coils as possible. There is a little line/ridge on the tape to help guide you. Do both sides this way. If the zipper gets in the way for the last few stitches, stop and just sew by hand a few permanent back stitches.

• With the right sides facing each other and zipper open, hand baste the remaining three sides. Hand basting seams is one couture method I never skip. It is especially important when you need to match motifs or you have shifty and/or expensive fabric.
• When machine sewing the remaining three sides, start from the zipper side about 1/4 inch before the end point of the final zipper seam line and 1/8 inch below the final zipper seam. Sew towards the first corner.
• Don’t sew a perfect right angle at the corners, taper slightly into and out of each corner.

• End on the zipper side about 1/4 inch past the end point of the zipper seam.
• Remove basting. Cut corners at an angle and turn pillow to right side
• Insert pillow form.
• You can put some batting in the corners to fill them out if it looks a little “dog-eared” .