Velvet survival

 Well, it seems that I have survived the velvet  after all.
It did require a bit of careful basting, especially when dealing with the collar. I used a heavy shirt fusible in the collar stand, but only one layer of lightweight interfacing in the fall. The velvet is not overly heavy, but it has more thickness than a regular shirting. The fall of the collar therefore needed to be a bit deeper to account for the turn of fabric at the top edge.
In the top picture I still had the top collar edge  basted because I wasn't sure it would look alright with a top stitch, or would behave under the presser foot of the machine. It did in the end.

The design called for the shirt sleeves to be rolled up, but of course the backside of the velvet would show if I made a regular shirt sleeve. Instead, I made a separate tubular cuff
and attached it to the shortened sleeve of the shirt. The cuff then folds up onto itself a bit and it is tight enough not to slip down the arm.

To finish it all off, it is attached to a brief, which keeps it looking nice and tidy no matter what movement is happening in the upper body. It also prevents the shirt hem from bunching up when it is tucked into the trousers.

I didn't put buttons on it, just sewed snaps on to close it up to the mid chest line, so nothing distracts from the velvet, which is a really fabulous colour I must say. Very flattering look, deep colour, simple cut, and rich looking fabric, and not as bad to sew as I had thought.