Archer Sew Along: Assembling & Attaching the Collar

Okay time for the exciting part, are you guys ready to put in your collars? We're going to both assemble the collars and attach it today, it seemed easier and less confusing than splitting it into two posts. This is a pretty long post, 20 images and 2 videos, so I hope I've covered everything in enough detail so that you're able to follow the steps easily and without much confusion. As usual let me know if you have questions. Click below to follow along!

Sew the two undercollar pieces together with right sides facing. Press seam open.

Pin the undercollar and collar together with right sides facing and stitch around the outer three edges of the collar. To get a sharp point I follow this technique I wrote about in my Perfect Points Tips & Tricks post. You'll see my collar point two photos down using this technique.

Grade the seam allowance and clip the corners as shown above.

Now turn your collar right side out and press. You're going to want to make sure the seam rolls to the underside of the collar as shown in the second photo so that you can't see it.

Place a line of stitching within the seam allowance of the open edge of the collar and topstitch around the outer edges of the collar. Next up is the collar stand.

With right sides facing, pin the un-interfaced collar stand to the underside of the collar and stitch the two together within the seam allowance.

Pin and stitch the interfaced collar stand to the top of the collar with right sides facing.

Grade seam as shown. I don't clip my curves on things like this, I find that you get a better and smoother curve if you just trim close to the curve. It's the same principal I described in my Smooth Collar Curves Tips & Tricks post.

Press the collar stand down away from the collar.

Now it's time to attach the collar to the shirt. For the first step here you're going to pin the undercollar stand to the neck edge of the shirt from end to end with right sides facing. You may find it easier to do this by clipping the neck edge a bit.

Stitch through these two layers from one end of the neckline to the other. I find that if you are careful not to catch the seam allowances in your stitching line you'll get a smoother turn in the following steps. Now here's the semi-confusing part, I figured I'd make videos for the next two steps since it was easier to show this way than with photos.

 

Attaching a Collar Pt. 2 from grainline on Vimeo.

Now you've got that all attached, here's what's next...

Turn the shirt wrong side up and fold under the collar stand seam allowance. You can either slip stitch this in place or do the technique I've talked about a million times so far where you fold the facing under and topstitch it in place.

Topstitch around the collar stand.

That's it, your collar is now attached and it's only downhill to the finish from here. Just the cuffs, hem and buttons & buttonholes left. Almost there!