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!

Faux Fur Collar

I'll be honest with you... I have NO idea what this is for.

The only thing I can think of is its kinda like a scarf that you tie on instead of wrap around. But then again, it sits on your shoulders and not around your neck to keep you warm. *confused face* Anywho, I made it because it was simple and fast and it gave me a reason to play with this super soft faux fur that I had just laying around.

Working with the faux fur was messy! The fuzzies kept falling off everywhere. Maybe I was doing something wrong, maybe the material was just not that great of a quality. I just don't know. The bottom part is black crushed velvet (which by the way made the fur fuzzies stick to it like a super magnet). Other than the fur flying, this was a very easy little project. Stick ribbon between top and bottom. Sew top to bottom. Turn inside out. Slipstitch open end to finish. Done.

Super Fast. Super Easy. Still don't know what its for :)

School Project - Collared Button Down Shirt

This was a tough one. I honestly never thought I was going to finish this shirt. Class is 16 weeks long and this shirt I think took me 10 or 11 class periods to do. I am glad this shirt is done, but not very happy with some of the details on it. I'm glad I had guidance with this one. Otherwise, it would have gone in the trash long before it got finished.

The collar. *sigh* I had to redo this one. Good thing I had extra fabric. I think the best advise I can offer to anyone is ALWAYS have extra fabric. You never know when you might need it. I was plugging along following the instructions (apparently that was my first mistake) when my teacher announced that she has a better, easier, nicer looking way to make a collar. Crap. I already made the collar according to the instructions. Ok, scrap that. Start over. I am not going to provide step by step instructions for most things, but for the things that I find make a real difference I will because I know it made my life more simple, or made the overall garment look a lot nicer. I am happy to share the good tidbits.

For the collar, she had us choose which side was going to be the under side of the collar and cut those pieces 1/4" shorter on the sides that were NOT going to connect with the shirt. And cut the interfacing a total of 1/2" shorter on the sides that were NOT going to connect with the shirt. Melt the fusible interfacing (great stuff by the way) to the under collar. Then sew the top collar pieces to the bottom pieces like normal. By shortening the sides of the back then sewing them together, it pulls the seam under. When you iron and attach the collar to the shirt you do not see the seams, AND you don't have to bother with top stitching to hold anything in place. This all makes the collar crisper and neater looking. Very cool.

Ok, back to non specifics. Button holes are easy when you have the little foot attachment for your sewing machine. I love it. Still trying to figure out machine attached buttons. Never seems to turn out quite right for me, BUT I'm working on it. I also did darts for the first time on this shirt. Start from the outside and work to the point. Easy.

Now that I have done a shirt like this I could do it again a lot quicker, but it is definitely more involved than other things I've made. And I know I have to refine some things still. But I am happy with this overall despite the amount of time it took to make.