Velvet is a woven fabric that comes in a wide variety of colors. It has a raised nap that is very sensitive to pressure.

To demonstrate how sensitive velvet is, we hooped a piece of velvet for just a few minutes.

Do you see the ring in the fabric? That's called "hoop burn," and in the case of velvet, it's permanent.

Normally a hoop mark is removed from the fabric when it's washed. But velvet isn't washable, so once the hoop mark is in the fabric, it isn't easy to get it out.

When embroidering onto velvet, hoop the stabilizer only.

We sprayed a piece of medium-weight cutaway stabilizer with temporary adhesive (we use Gunold's KK100).

You can also use a sticky-back stabilizer, provided it isn't water-activated.

Hoop the stabilizer firmly.

Velvet is a stretchy fabric, so we use cutaway stabilizer rather than tear-away. Cutaway will do the best job to support the fabric during the embroidery, and after.

Smooth the velvet onto the cutaway stabilizer.

Embroider the design. Because velvet is a woven fabric, you can use any type of needle -- sharp, embroidery, ballpoint, universal -- and any will work well.

After the embroidery has finished, trim the cutaway stabilizer from the backside, leaving about 1/4 to 1/2 inch around the design.

And it's as easy as that to get great results when embroidering on velvet!