19 Sep 2012 No Comments
How to Attach a Classic Shirt Collar
This fall I want to learn how to sew and then draft my own shirts patterns. I’ve almost finished a shirt before and I’ve deconstructed several, so I consider myself ready for the job :)
I’ve read good things about the Negroni shirt pattern from Colette, more in terms of the construction and sewing how to than the pattern itself, so I am curious: did you use it? Do you recommend it?
I’ve recently had a sewing crush on Japanese Sewing books. The patterns are so simple, the fit is loose and styling very modest; the clothes are almost always made of natural fabrics in neutral colors: tan, white, light blue, pale indigo etc.
Today I discovered this book which describes the process of constructing the collar of the shirt. Where was this book a year or so ago when I spent one hour figuring this out and still got it wrong?
First the book lays out the shirt pieces: the two pieces for the collar, the upper back side, the lower back side and the front of the shirt. You can see the upper back piece connected with the lower back piece on point 2.
Point 3 suggests a stay stich for the neck opening, then 4 shows the four pieces needed for the collar. Point 5 shows how you should connect your pieces.
I like how neat this looks: press your seam allowances to create a crisp collar.
The two upper collar pieces are connected to the lower collar pieces (I am sure these have better names, I’ll come back and edit these when I learn more about these particular pieces) and the threads are pulled downwards.
The side curved seam allowances are trimmed very close to the stitch. You can see very clearly in this image how only one of the lower seam allowances is folded inside the collar; the other one will be used to attach the collar to the shirt.
Here you have the collar attached to the shirt; the resulting two sewing allowances are tucked in, inside the collar (fig 26)
then the collar is topstitched. And ta-da! You’ve just constructed a shirt collar.
I am really impressed and excited about these instructions and even though the book goes over the construction of different types of shirts and blouses, I think it deserved a place in every sewist’s library, even if only for the above mentioned shirt collar step by step how to.
Original green shirt photo from Huzzah Vintage on flickr.
