Collar Drafting Tutorials

A few weeks ago, I taught a class on drafting collars. I had such a wonderful time. It's always nice to see faces light up and realize that a basic pattern can be changed so easily. But, I realized that I have not made it easy to find the tutorials. At the moment, I am having a difficult time trying to find how to add a new tab to the navigation bar, but it is coming, hopefully, later today. In the meantime, here are the collars with links to the tutorials. Tomorrow I will be adding a tutorial on how to draft a hood. Then on Thursday, I will do the full drafting tutorial of the jacket I made HERE. 

The Mandarin Collar is a wonderful collar that can easily be drafted. It's a great collar that adds a little interest to the neck. You can find the tutorial HERE. 

The collar below is the Revere Collar. A very easy collar to draft. It looks a little more complicated as I added the bias trim around the collar and down the front of the blouse. You can find the tutorial for this collar HERE. 

The Peter Pan Collar. In the post that I did yesterday, the free Mary Quant dress pattern had 2 variations of the Peter Pan collar, one with a rounded edge, the other with a point. Both drafted the exact same way. You can find the tutorial on drafting the Peter Pan Collar HERE. 

The Sailor Collar is such a great collar for summer. It looks great on a dress, a tunic top, as well as a hoodie. You can find the tutorial HERE. 

I did 2 versions of the Shawl Collar. The collar below is the narrow version. The narrowness of the collar has nothing to do with how big the collar is in front, but how it lays on the back neck. Below is the Narrow Shawl Collar. You can find the tutorial HERE.  

Below is the wide version of the Shawl Collar. You can find this tutorial HERE.

Here's a picture of me in the dress. I absolutely love wearing this dress in the summer. Just throw it on and go!

The Raised Neckline. While this is not a traditional collar, it gives the appearance of a collar. Very dramatic, and quite lovely. You can find the tutorial HERE. This is by far one of my favorite necklines.

As soon as I can figure out how to add the new tab to the header bar at the top of the blog page, the tutorials will be all the easier to find. Technology :/

By the way, if by chance you do download the Mary Quant dress, any of these collars can be applied to that pattern. So play around and have some fun!

I am off to take Mr. Berkley for his initiation visit for daycare. He really doesn't need actual daycare, but I am doing it because he is such a social boy and I think he will have a blast playing with the other dogs. Gracie is at a point in her life that she would rather be left alone :( I'll try to take a few pictures and share with you. 

Cute story;
My husband thought that Berkley was going to daycare yesterday. He came home, found Berkley here, and I was gone. He told me that he asked Berkley, "why are you here? Did you get kicked out of daycare?" :) Hopefully all will go well.

Thanks for stopping by!

Rhonda

Sewing Indie Month/Pattern Hacking the Spearmint Coat

As I shared with you last week, I'm the Pattern Hacker for Sewing Indie Month. It's always a lot of fun to take a pattern, maybe cut it up a bit, or manipulate it into something a little different. My first project is the Spearmint coat from Lolita Patterns. It's a lovely and ultra feminine coat that has a cascading ruffled collar. The issue is that I live in Chicago and an open collar in the dead of winter, well, it just won't do. So what to do?
Rather than all of the ruffles,

I decided that I would rather bring the collar up closer to my neck. Great idea, but how?

As you can see, I had already made the collar as the pattern dictated. To determine where I would like the collar rollover in the front, I began by matching the center back line of the collar to the center back line of the coat.  

I pinned the collar to the edge of the neckline and brought it around to the front and then pinned it where I would like for it to close. As you can see, the bottom portion of the original collar will no longer match the neckline of the coat.

In the picture below, you can see that the collar is pinned to the neckline of the coat and I also have a pin where the collar will make the turn to attach to the other side of the neckline. This will become an important notch.

This point will also need to be marked on the neckline of the coat as you see below.

I have now removed the collar from the coat and you can see the pins marking where the collar will make the turn and where it will attach to the other side of the neckline.

I want to keep the basic shape of the collar from center back to about the middle of the collar. In the picture below, I have matched the original collar up to the pattern and I am pointing to the 2 pins that mark where the collar will make the turn and where it will attach to the other side of the neckline. By the way, the collar will not be permanently attached to the other side of the neckline. I will sew a loop and a button at this point to close the collar.

From each of these points, I want to draw a straight line down that will be at least as long as the neck opening of the coat.

In the picture below, you can see how the collar no longer has the curl for the ruffles, but comes straight down the front of the coat. 

To drape the collar, begin at center back and match the center back seam of the collar to the center back seam of the coat.

Bring the collar around to the front and pin it to the neckline. At the point that was determined to be the turning point, the collar is then brought over to the other side of the neckline. Pin the extended portion of the collar to the coat.

Now, take a piece of marking wax and mark the edge of the coat neckline on to the muslin. Be sure to mark the center front point of the coat.

There is a 1 1/4" overlap at center front. 

 After I marked the edge of the collar, I removed the muslin. I then extended the line of the collar to match the 1 1/4" extension at center front of the coat, and I added my seam allowances.

Once I added my seam allowances to the new collar, I then put the collar back on the coat, matching the notches that I established.

I matched up the collar to the entire neckline to make sure that it is fitting as it should. Keep in mind that this is just half of the collar. Once the collar is completed, there will be a button on the opposite side of the neckline that will hold the collar closed. 

When the collar is left opened, it will basically look like a big shawl collar. So it can now be closed for added warmth and when it's left open, it will still look very pretty.

I've included the picture below so that you can see how the new collar compares to the original collar.

This is a fairly easy draping exercise. If you have never done any draping, but think that you might like to give the collar a try, please don't be intimated. Just be sure to do the draping in muslin so that you don't end up ruining your fashion fabric.
 The final edition of the coat with a completely finished collar will be posted on September 24th. I'm supposed to do my posts on Thursdays. I'm a day late this week. Hopefully I'll make it up with the other hacks that I intend to show.
Hope you're enjoying Sewing Indie Month. Be sure to check out all of the other posts that are being done throughout the blogosphere. Just click HERE to find the direct links.

Coming Up On The Blog

Good Morning Everyone and Happy Tuesday!! I'm feeling more myself once again. Amazing what a little extra sleep can do for you :)
I just quickly wanted to give you a little idea of the projects that will be coming up on the blog in the next few weeks.
1. Ribbon Weaving

The class on ribbon weaving went very well. I was so happy that everyone was able to leave with their sampler pieces. They all asked for a written tutorial, so I thought that if I am going to do the tutorial, it would be nice to share it with everyone.
2. The Collar Drafting Tutorial

So many messaged me about this collar and said that they would love a drafting tutorial. I'm really looking forward to this particular post.
3. Bias Cut Blueprints

A few years back, I was asked to judge a contest for the Association of Sewing and Design Professionals. I came across a dress that was cut on the bias and it had these incredible insets. The dress was absolutely perfect. The judging is blind and the initial round is done on the internet, Finalists are chosen and then the final decision is made at the conference. We were supposed to have a dressform for judging, but for whatever reason, we didn't, so the editor of Threads magazine looked at me and said, "you can wear all of these garments so we'll use you as a model." When I put this bias dress on, I was in LOVE! What an incredible dress. I fought hard for that dress to be a winner. Little did I know that it belonged to Julianne Bramson of Fashion In Harmony. As fate would have it, we met at a class in San Francisco a few years later. Since then we have become friends. She has recently published a book, Bias Cut Blueprints and she gave me a copy to critique. I am SUPER excited. I already know which project will be my first.
4. Our Pant Drafting posts.
Finally....I'm so happy to be getting back to this project. The next post will be up later this afternoon. Once we draw in the darts and true the legs, we'll be ready to cut out the pants and start fitting.
5. The new issue of Sew News is out and I have a new sew along that will be coming up. I think you'll like it, it's another really great bag. I'll announce it tomorrow and of course there will be a give away attached, so be sure to check back.

So, a fairly full agenda :), but a good one I think.
Rhonda

The Winter Coat Part 2

So many of you seemed to enjoy the coat inspiration post I did yesterday. I'm so happy that you did! One coat seems to have stood out to a number of you because of the collar.

It is a very pretty collar.

You may remember the outfit I did for the Passion For Fashion contest I participated in 2 years ago. The collar is bigger, but basically the same principle.

I have a vintage coat that I've had for some time that also has a similar collar.

 This collar is basically a very large shawl collar as you can see when it is opened up.

But here's what I love. To obtain the shaping, there are a series of darts all around the collar. Beautiful.

 The collar is actually hand sewn to the back of the coat.

This collar is rather over the top, but the collar on the white coat is very sensible and pretty. I will be more than happy to do a tutorial on drafting the collar. Let me know if this is something you would like to see. The perfect coat pattern for the white coat would be the Sewaholic Robson coat. I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

Sleeves On Saturdays

It has been brought to my attention that there are a number of sleeves that I have done for you that you've never seen on my body, so over the next few weeks, I will be modeling the sleeves for you. Not that I make the best model, but at least it gives you an idea of what the sleeve looks like on a body rather than just on my dress form.
You may remember this dress from last summer. I did a tutorial on how to draft the collar for Sew News. You can find that post here, http://www.sewnews.com/blogs/sewing/2013/06/05/the-shawl-collar-tutorial-by-guest-blogger-rhonda-buss/

I did a tutorial on how to draft the sleeve here, http://rhondabuss.blogspot.com/2013/06/sleeves-on-saturdays.html

And here I am. If you saw the post I did last year, you may remember that I was in a quandary about what I would do for a belt. Well, I dug through my scarf drawer and I found the sash. I was so happy. Problem solved!

I never named this sleeve. We'll call it
The Stylized Shoulder Pleated Sleeve. 

I went back and forth about the length of the skirt and finally decided to leave it long since the dress has such a vintage feel.
I see that I need to do a little more pressing. All in all though, I really like the dress.     

So now you have an idea of what the dress looks like on a body. 

By the way, that's a big chain laying on the ground in the background. My husband has been working on a project and I didn't realize that the chain was there. If you didn't know what it was you might think that a big horse has been in my yard!!!

Hope you're having a lovely weekend.

Rhonda