Collared T

Pattern: self-drafted t-shirt + collar
Fabric: double woven cotton gauze from Mood
Cost: $10

I love the recent roundup of t-shirts I've been seeing with collars. They are simple, casual, and with a little bit of polish that can take them from the weekend to work.

Jill Stuart's Spring 2012

I fell in love with Jill Stuart's Spring 2012 collection and decided to make my own version of her collared shirt in a color from my sewing palette. Using a beautiful double woven cotton gauze from Mood, I set about re-creating the look.



To showcase the double woven fabric, I turned the hem and sleeves up to expose the contrasting pattern, and made the collar up in the reverse side. I did struggle a bit with the fit--the back and neck hole feel a tad tight. I think the problem is that, in comparison to my Spring Forward top, the addition of sleeves to this look made the back fit a a bit tighter. I may add a back slit and button placket to make the shirt a bit bigger. I also had a great deal of trouble getting the collar quite right. Jill's collars look so nice. I think next time I might try to cut a placket or something to hang the collar a bit differently.

Some notes on drafting the collar...
This project is not hard, dear readers, but it did remind me the importance of geometry. You see, a regular button-down shirt collar, while looking much the same, is a completely different shape than a collar added to a t-shirt like mine above.

Here's the deal: A regular shirt collar folds over a placket or collar stand, like so (please excuse my novice vocab):

via

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It can therefore be cut from a relatively straight pattern piece to wrap around the neck:

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In contrast, and this may seem obvious to you but it took some head scratching for me, a collar without a placket or button-up shirt to hang down from (such as the peter-pan type collars popping up everywhere) must extend OUT horizontally from the neck instead of wrapping AROUND the neck:

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The pattern piece must have a much longer outer edge than inner edge, with a pattern piece curved like this:

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This way, it will lay flat around your neck when it's sewn on to the shirt!

For a Peter Pan collar, check out these free downloads from Matters of Style and Colette.