Velour Fabric Stores and Retailers

What Velour Looks Like on a Store Shelf

Velour is a plush knitted fabric with a short, dense pile that catches the light the way velvet does, but it is built on a knit base rather than a woven one. That construction gives it stretch from selvage to selvage, a softer drape and a friendlier price than true velvet, which is why retailers can stock it in long colour ranges. In a store you will usually find it rolled on bolts near the stretch fabrics, the dance and costume fabrics, or the fleece, rather than beside the woven dress goods.

Most retail velour today is a cotton and polyester blend or an all-polyester cloth, sold in widths around fifty-eight to sixty inches. Cotton-rich versions feel breathable and matte, which suits robes, loungewear and children's clothing, while polyester versions hold brighter dye colours and resist crushing in upholstery and curtain use. Some shops also carry crushed velour, where the pile is pressed in different directions for a mottled, light-and-dark effect, and stretch velour with added elastane for close-fitting garments.

Because pile fabrics shade differently depending on the direction you view them, the colour on the bolt in the shop is only part of the story. Hold the fabric up, turn it end for end, and look at it in daylight near the door if the staff allow it. A length that looks deep burgundy one way may flash much lighter the other way, and that nap direction has to run the same way on every piece of a finished garment.

Where to Buy Velour at Retail

Large craft and fabric chains are the most convenient starting point, because they keep basic velour colours in stock year round for costumes, holiday projects and dancewear, and they sell by the single yard with no minimum. Independent fabric shops and mill shops often carry a narrower but more interesting range, including end-of-line colours and heavier upholstery weights that the chains do not bother with. Several of the retailers listed below began exactly that way, building a reputation on unusual fabrics sourced from many suppliers.

Online fabric stores have widened the choice considerably. A good online retailer photographs each colour, states the fibre content and width, and will sell or send a small swatch before you commit to yardage. That matters more with velour than with almost any other fabric, because screens render pile colours unreliably and the hand of one velour can be far plusher than another at the same price. Theatrical suppliers are another useful route: stage drapes and costume departments use velour in quantity, so their suppliers stock wide widths, flame-aware ranges and deep, light-absorbing blacks.

Craft specialists round out the picture. Plush cotton velour on a stable knit backing is sold for doll making, soft toys and Waldorf-style crafts, in smaller cuts and skin-tone and pastel shades that garment stores rarely carry. If your project is small, a craft supplier's fat quarter or half yard may be far better value than cutting into a full dress-length bolt elsewhere.

Buying Tips: Swatches, Nap and Care

Order swatches first whenever colour matching matters. More than one retailer in this guide offers free or inexpensive samples, and a swatch lets you check the pile direction, the stretch and the true colour under your own lighting. Note which way the pile runs on the swatch and mark the nap direction on your pattern pieces before you cut, because velour garments with panels cut in opposite directions look like they were made from two different fabrics.

Check the stretch before you buy for clothing. Velour for robes and casual wear needs only gentle give, while dance, skating and stage costumes need firm recovery so knees and elbows do not bag. Pull a corner of the bolt and watch whether it springs back flat. Also ask about care: many cotton-rich velours machine wash and dry on normal settings, but pile can crush in a hot dryer and some deep colours crock onto light upholstery until they have been washed once.

Finally, buy a little extra. Nap fabrics cannot be pieced invisibly, sleeves and facings must all be cut in one direction, and a small overage protects you if a panel is cut wrong. Keep the receipt and the bolt-end label with the fibre content and width, because matching a second purchase to the same dye lot later is never guaranteed.

Velour Fabric Retailers

Retail stores and online shops listed in the original directory for buying velour fabric by the yard or in smaller craft cuts.