I love collars as you can probably tell from the patterns in my shop. I think they're great and love the look it gives.
So how to retain a collar when we upcycle?
Here's how I did it.
First I picked a shirt pattern that has a lot of negative ease which is my Loxie Eagan's Top fits that description perfectly.
I had Penny put her dad's shirt on and buttoned it all the way up. I put a clip where her shoulder joint is and put a clip where I was thinking I would make the hem.
(When I first started this project I was thinking I would turn it into a dress with elastic at the waist but the shirt turned into...well a little shirt, you'll see.)
I cut the side seams of the shirt and separated the back and from the front. With my pattern piece positioned with the shoulder seam up against my clip I cut the front out.
(As you can see here I was planning a dress with a sharp hem. The fabric was too stiff for a hem like that and instead of hanging down at an angle is stuck out all funky like so I chopped it off.)
I flipped the back of the shirt under the front and cut the back to match the front.
I used the original sleeve's hem for my sleeves. Because I'm lazy like that.
Here are the pieces I chopped that shirt into! What I have here is the shirt (front and back sewn together still) and 2 short sleeves.
Like I said in the beginning I used the shirt and sleeve pattern pieces from the Loxie Eagan's Top and then just flaired out the hem a bit because, well, it was going to be a dress but you'll see that didn't work out.
Then I found the middle of the sleeve, laid it right side down on my shirt lining up the sleeves center with the shoulder seam of the shirt.
I sewed the sleeve on starting at one corner and finishing at the other.
The button placket needs to unbutton a little bit to get Penny's head in so I started the sewing it closed at the second button from the top.
I folded the shirt right sides together and sewed from the sleeve to the hem on both sides.
Gotta thread this tail in because I'm not hemming the sleeve.
The last task is to hem this mofo and try it on!
Yes!!!! And that's where I was like, oh hell no, for that angle. Back to the Babylock I went and serged it off.
But after that adjustment?
Perfection!
Check out my other upcycle projects!
