How To: Collars

I know that most people that sew have made something with a collar at some point. When I took my most recent sewing class we made collared shirts. I made the mistake of following the instructions that came with my pattern. My fantastic teacher showed us all another way to do collars. It is just a little bit different, but I think it looks nicer as a finished look. The following is the instructions that my teacher gave us.

Also, let me say that most patterns call for some kind of interfacing. I did not have any available for these pictures, but I will mention it when it is applicable.

The first thing pattern instructions tell you to do is cut 2 collar pieces out of your fabric and 1 piece of interfacing. Above I have 2 pieces cut from fabric. I did not use a pattern piece, but cut pieces that are approximate to what you would see in a pattern. And like i stated earlier, I did not cut an interfacing piece.

What I have done above is chosen one of my pieces to be my "under collar" It is hard to see in the picture, but I designated my chosen piece by putting an "X" made out of pins on it. It is the top piece in the picture.

After having chosen an under collar, I trimmed the 2 short sides and the top side by 1/4". I did not trim the side that gets attached to the shirt.

The next step is attaching the interfacing. I prefer fusible interfacing. It is nice because you lay it on the fabric and iron it on. Easy peasy. When you cut the interfacing, cut 1/2" off all the way around. Then center it on the under collar and iron it on. (I am going to assume you too are using fusible interfacing)

The next step is to sew the top and under collars together. Line up the tops and sides so the ends meet. This will NOT lay flat because one piece is larger than the other. Sewing the sides will be easy. The difficult part is sewing the tops together. When you are doing the tops, try to pull them flat against each other as much as you can. This means your under collar will be stretched further to make ends meet and lay flat against the top collar. Use a lot of pins. They will help keep it stretched as you sew. In the above picture, the under collar is facing up. You will notice that the collar curves up at the edges. This is a good thing.

Now you need to trim. Cut the top corners on a diagonal as close to where top and side seams cross as you can without cutting the corner itself. Then, you will trim down the under collar piece on the top and sides fairly close to the stitch, and the top collar piece leaving it a bit longer. DO NOT trim the bottom side that attaches to the shirt! That needs to stay the way it is so that it will attach properly to the shirt.

Finally, it is time to flip your collar inside right and press. Make sure to push out your corners! When you press, line up the bottom edges first. This will force the seam to pull around to one side (the side your under collar is on). When you are all done pressing, you should see no seams on your top collar. This makes the collar look neater as a finished product. Not only that, you will not have to worry about any top stitching to keep the seam in place. If you want a top stitch to decorate... well, that is up to you.

I hope that this will help you all with collars. I know that after having done one collar the way the pattern says and then doing one this way, this one looks a lot neater. It is really not that much more work than the way the instructions say.

If anyone has any questions, comments, or needs clarification on anything, please send me a note or leave a comment and we will get it figured out!