June 8, 2017

Lenox Shirtdress Sewalong Day 8: Assembling and Attaching the collar


Today, we’ll be assembling our collars and collar stands. Most of the assembly steps are the same whether you’re making the band collar or the traditional collar, but I’ll be sure to flag when something will be different for the band collar.

Let’s start by assembling the collar if you’re making the traditional collar.

Getting nice sharp collar points is always a bit of a challenge and it’s one of those things that really elevates your final product. Here’s an excerpt from our Shirtmaking for Curves class to show you a great trick for your collar:

Here’s what the steps look like on the Lenox sample.

Start with your uninterfaced under collar and your interfaced collar. Take two pieces of thick thread (I used topstitching thread) and tie a knot to make two loops with long tails. Pin your collar to your under collar, right sides together, along the long outer edge.

Sew this seam then open up the collar and lay one of your thread loops along the ditch created by that seam, with the loop sticking out the side.

Fold the collar back with right sides together and pin along the short edge next to the thread loop. Sew this short edge using a short stitch length where you sew across the thread loop.

Trim the corner, being careful not to clip your thread loop.

Repeat these steps with the second side of your collar. Turn the collar gently right side out. Grasp the thread ends from one corner and pull slowly and steadily, holding the collar in place, until the corner turns fully. I like to press the corner while holding tension on the thread.

Give your whole collar a good press and topstitch around the outer edges.

All views resume…

Welcome back, band collar friends! Let’s attach our collar stand (which is also our outer band collar) to the dress body.

Pin the interfaced collar stand/band collar to the right side of the dress. Match the notches all the way around. The stand will extend 1/2″ beyond the button band at either end.

Sew at 1/2″ seam allowance and then press both the collar stand and seam allowance up away from the dress body.

Traditional collar only…

Pin the collar to the collar stand, under collar against the right side of the collar stand, matching notches. Baste in place with 1/4″ seam allowance.

All views resume…

Take your un-interfaced collar stand/band collar and press up the seam allowance along the long straight edge to the wrong side.

Pin the un-interfaced stand/band to the interfaced collar stand, right sides together. If you’re making the traditional collar, the collar will be sandwiched between the two. If you’re making the band collar, there won’t be anything in between the two. Sew along the curved edge, starting and ending right at the very edge of the button band.

Trim the seam allowance very close to the curve and turn the stand/band collar right side out.

Press the inner collar stand/band collar down toward the dress so the folded edge just overlaps the outer collar stand/band collar seam. Secure in place using pins or wonder tape. Topstitch from the outside at a scant 1/8″.

That’s it for today! Next time, we’ll sew our sleeve bands. Our Lenox Shirtdresses are almost done!

 

 

One thought on “Lenox Shirtdress Sewalong Day 8: Assembling and Attaching the collar

  1. Monique says:

    Hi there! I just completed my first Lenox, it fits great with some minor adjustments and I’m very excited to start my second one – in ‘good’ fabric! 🙂 I’m looking at this version above and the band collar is different from the pattern I have. I quite like the stand up collar, compared to the collarless version on my pattern. Is this version still available?

Let me know what you think!