Monday, November 26, 2012

Sureau Sew-along: Adding a Collar


example of pointy collar
Last week of the sew-along! In these last few posts, we're going to see a few ways to alter the Sureau, and we're starting with a collar!
I'm going to show you how to draft a pointy (or Chelsea) collar for your dress.

Start by tracing the seam allowance on both the shoulders and neckline of your bodice pieces.

Now pin or tape your pieces together at the shoulder, overlapping the seam allowances plus an extra cm at the armhole. This will make your collar lay better.

Now lay some tracing paper over your pattern pieces and trace the neckline, the seam allowance, the begininning of the center back and front. Mark where the shoulder seam is (you don't need a long line like I did, a little notch is more than enough).


With a ruler, mark some dots at 6 cm (or your preferred width) and join them with the help of a French curve.

Decide at what angle you want the point of your collar to be. I marked 3 cm from the center front and drew a straight line.

Trace the seam allowance all around your collar (although not at the center back) and cut.
And you're done!

To construct the collar:
Cut two collar pieces on the fold of the fabric and sew along the outer edge, with right sides together.
Remember that notching the curve and pressing the collar carefully once you've turned it will make a HUGE difference on your finished result.
When you pin the collar on the neckline, the two parts will have to overlap at the center front and meet at exactly 1,5cm from the edge.
Once the collar is stitched on, you will pin and the sew the facing over it and proceed as usual.

If you want to see how to draft a peter-pan half collar, here is Eléonore's post.

5 comments:

  1. I decided today to make a collar for my dress but i have a very important question since i' ve never made one yet... Well i have a plaid fabric and i'm in front of a dilemma: should i match the plaids for the collar too, or i shouldn't because it won't stand out from the corsage. It will be the same fabric as you understood..what's your opinion Anna?

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  2. Personally, I wouldn't match the plaid, because it would make it disappear. I'd probably cut the collar on the bias to make it stand out more. But it's really a question of personal taste, and what effect you want to create.

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  3. I'm surprised you didn't overlap the shoulder part more than the neck part.. If I drat a collar like this it kind of sticks out and has no collar roll.. Does this work for you?
    this is interesting!

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  4. The shoulder is overlapped at the armhole 1cm more than at the neckline. That's what I learnt from other tutorials on drafting a collar and it always worked for me...

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  5. Oh! I didn't realize the shoulder overlapped more than the neckline.. my bad! sorry!

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