Well I’m not feeling 100% yet, so I decided to tackle one of the smaller/easier pattern drafting tasks for the dress I’m making. If you can’t remember what I’m talking about, check out this post.

It has a peter pan collar, which I think is the cutie pie of all collars. There are a number of different choices for making a peter pan collar, it can either lie completely flat against the garment or have some roll to it ( you know like a men’s dress shirt). I chose to have some roll to it, I thought it would be a little cuter. So here’s how I did it…

First I took out my bodice pieces and matched up the neckline edges. Then I overlapped the shoulder tips by 4 inches to get a tighter curve in the collar that will give me the roll height I want.

I taped them to my cutting mat (I like scotch tape because it comes off so easily) and then put my tracing paper over the top. I find this the easiest way to draft a pattern, because I can clearly see what I’m doing the whole time.

Then I marked 1/8 of an inch outside the neckline at the back and 1/4 inch inside the neckline on the centre front. This is so that the collar will have a higher roll in the back and lie flatter in the front.

Then I blended my neckline so that the marks and original neckline were as closely matched as possible, but still with a smooth (ish!) line.

I measured out 2.5 inches from each point along the neckline and drew a guideline that was parallel.

Then I drew the curve of the collar in the front. As you can see it took me a while to figure out how I wanted it to look.

Cut it out, and yippee here’s my pattern!

Of course I’m not quite done yet, as I still needed to make an undercollar pattern. I think one of the greatest collar mistakes people make is cutting the undercollar exactly the same as the collar. If you do this it won’t sit right, and you’ll forever have strange billowing/puffyness under the collar where the excess fabric is getting in the way. The best way I can explain it is that If you looked at a cross section of a collar ( once on a garment), the curve of the underside would be shorter than the curve of the outside edge. Much like a running track. The outer edge is longer than the inner edge. . So the undercollar needs to be a smidgen smaller on the outer edge than the collar. So I traced the collar’s outer inner edge & sides, and made the outer edge 1/8 inch shallower.

TA DA!!  Now I have my pattern for my collar. If it doesn’t look much like a collar to you, keep in mind that the straight edge will be placed on folded fabric. So what you’re seeing is really half of a collar!

Meanwhile, I’m thinking since I want ruffles down the front of this dress, a patterned fabric would be too busy. At the moment, I’m thinking of a very lightweight cotton, probably in a sage green with white ruffle and collar. What do you guys think?

If you enjoyed this post make sure you stay updated via my RSS feed!

10 Responses to “My creative process- Pattern drafting part 1, a peter pan collar”