The first time I sewed with chenille fabric I got it wrong. I laid the pieces out whichever way they fitted, and finished two cushion covers that looked like different colours depending which one you sat nearest. The fabric was not faulty. I had misunderstood what I bought. Chenille is not really a fabric at all. It is a yarn, and once you understand the yarn, every odd thing the cloth does makes sense.
What Is Chenille Fabric
Merriam-Webster defines chenille in two parts, and the order matters. First it is “a wool, cotton, silk, or rayon yarn with protruding pile.” Only second is it “a pile-face fabric with a filling of this yarn.” The yarn comes first. The cloth is simply what happens when you weave it.
That is the most useful thing a sewist can know about chenille. It is not a fibre, it is a construction. James Dunlop Textiles, the furnishing mill, notes chenille “can be constructed from natural fibres such as silk, viscose, linen, or cotton, or from synthetic alternatives.” So a label reading only “chenille” tells you how the yarn was built and nothing about how it will wash, drape or wear. Cotton, rayon, polyester, acrylic and silk are all common, so ask which you have.
Why It Is Named After A Caterpillar
The name explains itself. Chenille is the French word for caterpillar, traced by Merriam-Webster’s entry for chenille to the Latin canicula, a little dog, first used in English around 1739. As Wikipedia puts it, chenille is “the French word for caterpillar, whose fur the yarn is supposed to resemble.”
What makes it caterpillar like is that the fuzz stands out on every side. Wikipedia again: “the edges of these piles then stand at right angles to the yarn’s core, giving chenille both its softness and its characteristic look.” A chenille yarn is a hairy cylinder, and that geometry causes everything below.
Chenille Vs Velvet, Corduroy And Minky
- Velvet gets its pile from the weaving. The upholstery supplier Sailrite describes it as woven in “two layers of fabric simultaneously, which are then cut apart,” so the pile exists only once the cloth does. See my velvet guide.
- Chenille gets its pile from the yarn, before a pick goes into the loom. Sailrite notes velvet reads “much denser and smoother than chenille.” Chenille has the fatter, cosier hand.
- Corduroy is a cut weft pile in wales, so its direction is obvious. Chenille has direction too, just harder to see. See my corduroy guide.
- Minky is a knitted polyester pile, so it stretches and does not fray. Woven chenille barely stretches and frays enthusiastically, so your minky habits will not transfer.
A Brief History Of Chenille Fabric
Chenille yarn was worked out in France in the 1700s, and the original method was gloriously roundabout: you wove a cloth, then destroyed it. Weavers made a leno fabric, a gauze weave in which pairs of warp threads twist round each other and grip the weft tightly, then cut it into narrow strips. Each strip became a yarn, cut weft ends bristling along both edges.
In the 1830s a Scottish mill foreman called Alexander Buchanan improved it. Per Wikipedia, “tufts of coloured wool were woven together into a blanket that was then cut into strips,” and the strips were “treated by heating rollers in order to create the frizz.” The American Textile History Museum’s online fabric encyclopedia records that James Templeton and William Quigley then “refined the process to make sturdier piles,” taking chenille into carpet as well as shawls.
The Georgia Bedspread Years
The chapter American sewists have touched began with a teenager and a hand needle. The Bandy Heritage Center at Dalton State College records that in 1895, aged fifteen, Catherine Evans made a hand tufted bedspread copied from a Civil War era example, and sold her first in 1900 for $2.50. The New Georgia Encyclopedia describes the technique she revived: stamping designs onto cotton sheeting, then filling the outlines with raised yarn tufts.
It became an industry fast. Merchants stamped sheets in warehouses and “haulers” carried bundles out to rural families who tufted them at home for badly needed Depression era cash. Roadside stands lined U.S. Highway 41 near Dalton, and because the peacock design outsold everything the stretch was nicknamed Peacock Alley. The first tufting machine arrived in 1930, and the industry soon left bedspreads for carpet.
Here is the detail I love. The New Georgia Encyclopedia points out that chenille strictly means a fabric with thick pile protruding at right angles, and most of those tufted bedspreads did not meet that definition. They were tufted, not woven from chenille yarn. The name stuck anyway, which is why a vintage “chenille bedspread” and a bolt of woven chenille are different things.
How Chenille Fabric Is Made
Modern chenille yarn is no longer made by cutting up cloth. A United States patent for a chenille yarn producing machine describes it as “short lengths of what is here termed an effect yarn, the short lengths being bound between a twisted pair of what are here termed core yarns.” Two forming tapes run face to face, core yarns are laid along them, the effect yarn is wound round the outside, and a blade slices the wrappings down the middle. That one cut turns a wrapped tape into two fringed strands, which feed into ring twisters that lock the fringe between the cores.
James Dunlop Textiles gives the scale: the pile fibre is roughly 2 to 3 mm long, and the loops are “cut very short at right angles.”
Why Chenille Sheds, And How Mills Stopped It
Look at what holds that pile in place: nothing but twist. Wikipedia states the consequence bluntly, that “one of the problems with chenille yarns is that the tufts can work loose, leaving bare fabric.” The industry fix was chemical. The American Textile History Museum’s online fabric encyclopedia sets out the sequence: “low-melt nylon makes up the yarn’s core,” and the strips are steamed so the softened nylon locks the tufts in place, a change James Dunlop Textiles credits with a real durability jump.
So good modern upholstery chenille barely sheds, while cheap, vintage and soft apparel chenille shed a great deal. You cannot tell by looking, so rub a scrap between your palms and see what lands on your lap.
Woven Chenille Cloth And Chenille Apparel Fabric
Once the yarn exists it goes into a loom. James Dunlop Textiles notes chenille yarns are typically “woven in the weft” rather than the warp, so the fuzzy yarn runs selvedge to selvedge while a plainer, stronger warp runs the length of the bolt.
Apparel chenille is a different beast. Much of what is sold for garments is knitted rather than woven, so it stretches and is far lighter. The fabric retailer EmmaOneSock recommends treating it as a knit: a stretch needle, a narrow zigzag, or a balanced serger stitch.
Faux Chenille, The Kind You Make Yourself
There is a third thing called chenille, and it contains no chenille yarn at all. Faux chenille is made by stacking layers of soft woven fabric, quilting them into narrow diagonal channels, slashing through the upper layers between every stitching line, then washing the lot so the cut edges fray and bloom. Quilting Daily describes channels roughly 3/8 to 1/2 inch apart, cut with a chenille cutter that takes the top layers and leaves the bottom whole.
It is the friendliest way to meet chenille: you build the texture from ordinary flannel and cotton. We have a full tutorial: the Faux Chenille Baby Blanket, a printed cotton panel over three layers of flannel, quilted at 45 degrees about half an inch apart, then slashed and washed. The slashing took a good ninety minutes, but it is the softest blanket in the house.
Keep the three straight and you will never buy the wrong thing. Woven chenille comes off a bolt and is defined by its yarn. Faux chenille is a technique you perform on ordinary fabric. Tufted bedspreads are named by history, not by structure.
How To Care For Chenille Fabric
- Wash cool and gentle. The American Textile History Museum’s online fabric encyclopedia recommends dry cleaning, hand washing, or a cold delicates cycle.
- Dry flat or on the lowest heat. The same source warns high heat causes stretching and shrinkage, and Sailrite notes chenille is prone to “stretching, shrinking or distortion.”
- Keep it out of sun, and blot spills fast. The fabric house Schumacher warns chenille left in strong sunlight risks fading, and Sailrite notes untreated chenille absorbs water and stains quickly.
- Do not crush it under an iron. I press mine face down into a folded towel, with steam and a light hand.
- It is tougher than it sounds. The same encyclopedia calls woven chenille abrasion resistant, and Schumacher says it can last decades. Wash it kindly and it will outlive the sofa.
Best Sewing Projects Using Chenille Fabric
Chenille is at its best where softness and body are both wanted and nothing must hold a crisp edge. Blankets, throws, cushion covers, robes, slippers and simple unfitted jackets all suit it. Tiny pieces, sharp collar points and fussy topstitching do not, because the pile swallows detail and cut edges shed into your seams.
For the slash and wash technique, the Faux Chenille Baby Blanket is where I would send you first. For proper yardage, our Ultimate DIY Beach Blanket is a straight swap: big rectangles and generous seams, so a cotton chenille backing turns it into a blanket you will fight over. Browse our free sewing patterns for more. Chenille hides under upholstery, home decor and sweater knit headings, so see the range of chenille fabric by the yard before you commit.
Tips For Sewing With Chenille Fabric
Tip 1: Cut Every Piece Facing The Same Way
This is the mistake I made with my cushions, and it ruins more chenille than anything. Because the pile stands out at right angles, the cloth catches light differently from each direction. Wikipedia puts it this way: “chenille will look different in one direction compared to another, as the fibers catch the light differently.” James Dunlop Textiles calls it a colour that “appears altered depending on the angle it is viewed from.”
So treat chenille as a napped fabric with a one way layout. Stroke it to find which direction feels smooth, mark the top of every pattern piece with a chalk arrow, and lay them all pointing the same way. It uses more yardage. Buy the extra.
Tip 2: Prewash It, And Prewash It Alone
Chenille produces lint rather than ordinary fraying threads, and it gets everywhere. The sewing blog CraftApple gives the sensible instruction: prewash chenille before combining it with cotton, so the fluff comes off in the machine rather than embedding itself in your quilting cotton. Clean the lint trap afterwards, and do not wear a black top on cutting day.
Tip 3: Finish Every Raw Edge Immediately
Woven chenille frays badly and fast, because the weft yarns carrying all that pile are held in by nothing but the warp. SewGuide is blunt that seam finishing is essential, suggesting serging, zigzag or Hong Kong seams. Without a serger, EmmaOneSock wraps the allowance in a narrow strip of mesh knit and zigzags it in place.
Tip 4: Fit A Walking Foot And Lengthen The Stitch
Two layers of pile do not feed evenly. CraftApple reports chenille “tends not to feed well through my machine, resulting in shorter than normal stitches,” and recommends a walking foot, a longer stitch, and reduced presser foot pressure. One caveat from the same source: joining chenille to plain cotton, take the walking foot off and put the chenille underneath. A walking foot earns its keep here, and I have written up three reasons you need one.
Tip 5: Use Weights And A Rotary Blade, Not Pins
Pins vanish into pile. EmmaOneSock recommends pattern weights instead, with clips for holding seams before stitching. A sharp rotary cutter beats scissors on pile because it does not lift and compress the layers, and we compared them in our budget or quality rotary cutters post. For slash and wash work a dedicated chenille cutter rides inside the channel and cuts only the upper layers. Otherwise see our 7 types of scissors for sewing.
Tip 6: Skip The Fusible Interfacing
EmmaOneSock advises avoiding fusibles on chenille altogether, because the iron and adhesive “will crush the pile,” and suggests a jersey or mesh knit as a sew in alternative. Once pile is crushed flat under fusible glue, nothing brings it back.
Tip 7: Match The Needle To The Chenille In Front Of You
There is no single right needle, because chenille is not one fabric. For heavy woven upholstery chenille, SewGuide suggests a size 90 needle. For knitted apparel chenille, EmmaOneSock calls a stretch needle in 75/11 the best choice, with a stretch twin needle for hems. Whichever you pick, sew a test seam on scraps first. No settings transfer from one chenille to the next, and unpicking pile is miserable work.
One Yarn, Many Fabrics
If you take away one idea, let it be this. Chenille is a yarn with a fuzzy pile standing out all round it like a caterpillar, and everything follows from that. The pile is why it is soft. The pile at right angles is why it shades in different directions and must be cut all one way. The pile held by twist alone is why it sheds. And the fibre is always a separate question.
Buy a metre and see how it behaves. Our sewing tips, tools and tricks section holds the rest of our fabric guides. Do tell me in the comments whether you are a woven chenille sewist or a slash and wash convert. I am both.
Some links above are Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, So Sew Easy earns from qualifying purchases at no cost to you.
Thanks so much for your comment!
It would be great if you could share this post with your friends!