The Under Collar

This is the strangest shirt collar I've encountered in a published pattern, and I find it intriguing as I have no idea of how it will turn out. In most shirts, a collar stand is sewn to the shirt body. The collar is sewn to the stand. In relaxed shirt designs, like the Aloha shirt, the collar is a single piece that is sewn to the body. In both of these approaches, the collar is two pieces of fabric sewn together and then turned inside out. The completed collar is then sewn to the stand or body. In this pattern, the collar is similar to a relaxed design, BUT the upper and lower fabric pieces of the collar are sewn separately to the body.

The right side of the lower collar is sewn to the right side of the body. I neglected to mention that I matched pattern circles to the yoke seam, pinned, then basted the lower collar. There is a great deal of twist in the fabric, so I thought it best to pin and baste before sewing along the 5/8" seam line.

The pattern then calls for the seam to be clipped at the circles. The seam is ironed open from the front edge to the clipped edge. The seam between the circles is ironed up and clipped.

Instead of the traditional v-triangle cuts, I cut opposing diagonals on the lower collar and the body. This is a technique I saw in a Louise Cutting video that is supposed to produce a stronger smoother curve in the collar. Here's what the result looks like after I turned the body right side out.

As instructed, I slit the V-Neck between the reinforcing stitches I did yesterday. Bear in mind, the collar is only half complete and there is no facing yet. The facing will be the same blue fabric as the lower collar, but the upper collar will be the same crab print fabric as the body.

I have no idea of what I'm doing. But it's an interesting journey.