inspired by alexa chung and rosemary’s baby, i put together this vintage-looking detachable collar pattern + tutorial.  make your own or enter the giveaway.  the tutorial is actually pretty easy, given you have a little bit of sewing experience.

Materials & Supplies

• pattern
• 1/4 yard of fabric (cotton or a lightweight woven)
• 1/4 yard of light-med fusible interfacing
• ribbon (I used about 1/4” grosgrain)
• iron
• scissors
• pencil & paper

1. print out or make your own collar pattern.  this pattern is designed to fit really close to your neck, to overlay high-necked dresses and blouses.  if you want a deeper neck collar, or one that is perfectly fit to a specific neckline you have in mind, you can make your own pattern.  just lay paper over the neckline of your shirt/dress, and trace around half of the collar (mid front, around the side to mid back), extend it out about 2.5” and round your front collar edge. 

next, cut out your fabric and interfacing.  double your main fabric, right sides together, and cut out 2 of the collar patterns (with the doubled fabric, that makes 4 pattern pieces).  then double your interfacing, right sides together, and cut out 1 pattern piece (which results in 2 interfacing collars).

2. iron the interfacing on to 2 pieces of the main fabric.  the pieces with interfacing will be your ‘upper collar’ (the part of the collar that is on top).

3. stitch the back seams of the upper collar together with a 1/2” seam allowance.  repeat for the under collar.  press seams open (important! don’t skip that!) and finish your seams (i cut them with pinking shears.) now you should have 2 pieces (complete upper and complete under collars) that look like this…

4. pin your upper and under collars, right sides together.  also, sandwich your ribbon in between the 2 layers, making sure to only catch the edge of the ribbon in the corner seam.  the left collar edge in the photo above is flipped back so you can see the placement of the ribbon, and the right collar edge is what it will look like after you place the collar on top.

5. stitch all around the edges of the collar with a 1/4” seam allowance.  make sure to leave a gap of about 2” to turn. 

6. trim your edges (i used pinking shears again).  then along the outer edges, make little snips (the whole way around) in the seam allowance almost right up to the seamline.  this will allow you to press your seams open.  then, along the inner edges (again, the whole way around), cut little Vs in the seam allowance, right up to the seamline. 

7. press your seams open (see above) - important if you want your collar to look normal.  don’t skip this!

8. turn your collar right side out (through the hole) and use something sharp (a seam opener if you have one, otherwise a chopstick works great) to go all along the edges and especially corners to make sure it’s completely turned out all of the way.  press flat.

9. hand stitch up the hole that you used to turn the collar using a blindstitch. basically just keep stitching the hole with the placement i have the needle above (where your thread stays on the inside and is invisible from the outside).  if you need more guidance, here’s a nice short blindstitch video.

10. topstitch all along the edges.  you’re done!

this collar is pretty basic, but there are so many variations you could do.

• make it in a bright print fabric
• use a contrasting thread for topstitching
• make it oversized
• change it into a pointed collar
• make the edges scalloped

if you make the collar, let me know!  send me photos!