This year I'd decided to try a few new things to improve and refine current my practices. There is always room for improvement. So today I'm sharing a technique published in Sandra Betzina's book, "Sewing Tool Box". This technique produces perfect crisp, sharp corners on a shirt collar. The following tutorial gives you step-by-step instructions on how to re-draft the collar pattern so that it is one continuous piece. Part II will illustrate how the actual collar is made.
Here goes:
Step 1 - First you want to copy the collar onto tissue paper. Include the notches. For this example, I used Vogue 9029. This collar is placed on the fold. So it is only half of the collar. If you are using a full collar, fold it in half, then trace it.
Step 2 - Cut it out and draw a line to mark the 5/8" stitching line. Count off the seam allowance.
Step 3 - This picture show the half collar without the seam allowance.
Step 4 - Now you want to take another sheet of tissue paper. It should be at least 18 inches wide and 18 inches long. Note: I double the paper to show you how the collar will look when it is cut out of fabric. Place the center of the collar on the left lower edge of the tissue paper and trace the other three sides.
Step 5 - Next, flip the pattern over to extend from the right end where the collar ends. Trace the three remaining sides.
Step 6 - This picture shows the two collar traced on the tissue paper.
Step 7 - Now on the right end, add 5/8" seam allowance to the new pattern.
Step 8 - Cut the new pattern out. It should look like the pattern above.
Step 9 - Note - to show how the "fabric" collar will look, I cut the pattern on the fold.
Step 10 - This step shows how you would fold and sew the fabric collar, which has only one center back seam to create the upper and lower collar. The second seam is along the long edge shown on the lower section of the following picture.
Happy Drafting!
C
PS - Next post actual collar being constructed.
Thanks!
