Hi Cin!
Actually, you can steam velvet if you have one of 2 things:
1) a nail board -- this is the safest option, but they are very expensive, and
tend to come in 4" square sizes, which are simply frustrating to work with.
(IMHO)
2) You can iron and steam velvet if you put the pile face down into another
piece of velvet whose pile is up. The pile from the bottom velvet keeps the
pile in the garment from being crushed. The costume shop manager I learned this
from said it worked best if you used the same fabric for both the garment and
the "drop cloth". Personally, I made a velvet ironing board cover, and it's
worked great for every velvet I've needed to iron. Depending on the strength of
your iron (if you have an industrial iron for instance), I would be hesitant to
use the full blast of the steam on this, especially if you are not using the
same fabric for both velvets. But I have worked with a home iron and my velvet
ironing board cover with no problems. I'm also a bit more paranoid about
leaving the iron face down on the velvet then I am when ironing cotton or wool.
-sunny
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