The anatomy of a chenille letter
Yarn, trim, first felt, second felt. What each layer does, and why the order matters more than most people think.
Every letter we make is built from four parts, and each one has a job. The chenille is the fuzzy yarn that fills the face of the letter — it is the part people reach out and touch, and it is what gives a varsity letter its depth.
The trim, or chain stitch, is the border that runs around the chenille. On roughly nineteen out of twenty letters it matches the yarn, so it reads as one solid shape. Contrast it deliberately and you get a hard outline that pops from across a gym.
Under the chenille sits the first layer of felt. It is usually the same colour as the yarn, because its job is to make the letter look fuller rather than to be seen on its own. The second layer of felt is the outermost border, and it is where school colours normally do their work.
Order matters. Felt is cut first and stacked largest to smallest, then the chenille is laid in and chain-stitched down through every layer at once. That single pass is what keeps a letter flat after twenty years in a closet.
