Supplies used: Sewing friendly Spray Adhesive. You do not want any old spray glue as it can gunk up your machine if it’s not the right stuff. Thanks, glue scientists. Ball point needles, and the usual suspects of pins, cutting implements, and thread.
Here are the collar pattern pieces I drafted for this! You may need to customize the pattern shape to fit your neck instead of mine.
Here’s the pattern for the draped part of the collar.
Interfacing: this is a quite thin but very structured 2 way stretch nylon-poly (probably). I got it from the $3/yard mystery bin at my fabric store and made pants out of it once. The 2 way stretch is essential and you want it to have some body so it can hold the shape of the collar for the jersey.
The interfacing fabric doesn’t have much stretch to it. It’s important to align the pattern pieces so the stretch is running front to back and not up and down.
Cutting out your pieces. You need 3 sets of the rectangular collar back piece: fashion layer, lining layer, and interfacing. You need 2 sets of the collar front: lining and interfacing. You need 1 cut on the drape on the fold: just the fashion fabric.
Start by arranging all four collar front pieces together. Stack the two interfacing pieces right sides together and the two jersey lining pieces right sides together, then stack all four together and sew along the curved front edge. Trim.
Sewing it this way gives a finished appearance with the seam edges hidden inside.
Time to bust out the spray adhesive! Put down some paper to protect your work surface. This stuff gets everywhere. Spray the interfacing layer and then carefully match and smooth the jersey lining layer to match it. Don’t stretch out the fabric but don’t leave bubbles or wonkiness in it either.
Glue and match up the second side.
Tada!
Baste it down! I have a half inch seam allowance in this pattern so I used a quarter inch for my basting line.
Finish the bottom edge of the front collar. Because it’s not going to be seen and I don’t want the bulk around my neck, I’m only folding it under along my half inch seam allowance.
All stitched down and pretty. Set the collar front piece aside for now.
Collar back assembly. I made a minor mistake here as well as forgot to take a few pictures at this stage so pay attention to the words as well as the photos. (1) Use the spray adhesive on the interfacing and baste the FASHION fabric pieces together with it. (2) Put the right sides of lining and fashion fabric (and attached interfacing) together (3) Stitch ONLY the top edges together. (My mistake here was stitching the bottom edge too. I had to pick out the seam)
Trim the top corners for bulk management and flip the collar back pieces rightside out. This will give you a single finished edge along the top. Baste the bottom edge down. You do not actually need to trim the corners of the bottom basted edge for bulk. It’s a relic of my previously mentioned oops.
The collar back is almost ready to sew to the collar front. The lining sides of each layer are going to face each other.
Baste along one edge that is going to be sewn down. This may seem like an excessive amount of basting but with a jersey like this it’s easy to wind up with puckers when you’re sewing if you’re not careful.
You don’t want to accidently stitch over the corners of the collar back so I found it useful to pin them down out of the way, leaving space to sew the top and side seams.
Baste your drape’s side seams. I like my machine’s basting stitch but you can do it by hand.
Match up the top seams and stitch it down (don’t sew over the collar back pieces!)
Gather up the sides! It’s coming together now!
A few tips before you stitch down those lovely gathers. (A)Fold the last half inch of the fashion fabric up. It should match where the finished edge of the collar front is and ensure that the raw edge of the jersey drape isn’t visible on the finished collar. (B)If you don’t have a walking foot (I didn’t use mine for this) I found it helpful to make sure the wiggly fabric (ie, the gathered jersey) is facing down into the feed dogs.
This is the back side of what you just sewed together, trim the corners to reduce bulk when turning and flip the sucker inside out. Pressing is helpful at this point. Watch your iron temperature. If you’re using a polyester, don’t scorch it!
Understitch the top edge of the collar. This will help keep the top edge looking neat and prevent your lining layer from peeking out. Press the entire thing some more and the collar is done! (except the zipper and attaching it to the dress)
