What is Collar?
Collars contribute to the style and ultimate look of garments. The addition of a simple collar will affect where and how you want your garment to close and the finish of the neckline. A collar encircles the neck and frames the face, offering great opportunities for design variations. Collars may be developed close to or away from the neckline. They may be wide, narrow, flat, or high and with or without an attached stand. The collar edge may be stylized or may follow a basic shape—it may be round, curved, scalloped, square, or pointed (long or short) in any direction.
The choice of a collar design should complement and enhance the style and purpose of the garment. A portion of the collars lay level, some fold near the neckline and others stand up. Irrespective of the style, a neckline should case the wearer’s face, draping elegantly around the neck area, free of pulls, ripples or wrinkles.
All collars consist of a minimum of two pieces, the upper collar (which will be on the outside) and the under collar. Interfacing, which is required to give the collar shape and structure, is often applied to the upper collar to give a smoother appearance to the fabric.
Basic Standards for Collars:
The basic standard requirements for collars are shown in Figure 1.
A well-applied collar should have the following characteristics.
- Should have a flat and even surface without any wrinkles. The outer edge seam should not be noticeable from the right side.
- The curves should be smooth or have sharp points depending on the type and style of the collar.
- Proper fit should be ensured in the neckline area without unattractive gaps or wrinkles.
- It should be interfaced properly to retain shape.
- Under stitching along the outer seam edge should be done to facilitate the seam to roll to the underside.
- The collar should be pressed well.
- The seam should be enclosed and graded to reduce thickness.
Different Types of Collars:
Various kinds of collars are commercially available in the garment industry. But collars fall into four basic groups: flat collars sit flat (or almost) around shoulders; standing collars stand up around the neck or stand, roll over, then fall; collars cut in one with the garment; collars with revers, separate collar and rever.
Different types of collars are enlisted below.
- Flat collar or Peter Pan collar
- Full roll collar
- Partial roll collar
- Standing straight collar
- Convertible collar
- Shawl type collar
- Mandarin collar
- Shirt collar
- Eton collar
- Flat collar with low neckline and slight stand
- Sailor collar
- Polo collar
- Wing collar
- High shaped collar
- Classic gents collar
- Classic reefer collar
- Frilled collar
- Simple cowl collar
Construction of Collars for Garments:
The neckline components are normally cut as per the pattern guide sheet. The under neckline is trimmed by about 1/8″ less than the upper neckline at the middle edges, close to the neck area as shown in Figure 2.
The center back or center front, shoulder line and notches should be marked carefully in the neckline panel. Likewise, the center front, center back and notches where the neckline edges must be found are also marked in the bodice neckline.
Then, the interfacing (Figure 3) of suitable weight is assembled onto the upper neckline. The interfacing can be of fusible or sew-in type. The interfacing is attached to the upper neckline with seam allowance indicated through the right half of the completed neckline. Sew-in interfacing is set up when the neckline is stay sewed and then the interfacing close to the stitches should be trimmed. This is followed by trimming of interfacing at the corners to lessen the thickness.
Fusible interfacing must be attached before the neckline is stay sewed. Before attachment, the fusible interfacing is trimmed to 1/8″ for crease recompense (Figure 4). The fusible interfacing should also be trimmed at the corners to reduce the thickness.
The appropriate side of the upper collar is pinned to the corresponding side of the under collar to match all the cut edges. For a pointed collar, the outer edge is sewn first (Figure 5) followed by grading and under stitching the seam (Figure 6). Folding of ends, matching cut edges, sewing and under stitching have to be carried out as much of the seam as possible.
In the case of a rounded collar, the outer edge is sewn from the center to the neckline edge. This avoids distortion of the collar’s shape. Then the seam is graded and notching the rounded collar is done wherever necessary.
Selection of Interfacing for Collars:
The type of collar and its applications determine the interfacing material to be used. The following criteria should be met while selecting an interfacing fabric for the collar, which provides stability and shape to the collar:
- The interfacing materials should be of the same or lower weight than the fashion fabric. For knitted fabrics or stretch fabrics, the interfacing fabric should be chosen to provide stability when the fabric is flexible. Figure 7 shows the influence of the interfacing material on the stability/ stiffness nature of the collars.
Figure 7: Without and with interfacing - The design of the base fabric determines the selection of the interfacing fabric, that is, whether the interfacing is attached to the under or upper collar. Usually, the interfacing is attached to the under collar. However the fusible interlinings used in the case of see through fabrics and heavy fabrics are attached to the upper collar.
References:
- Apparel Manufacturing Technology by T. Karthik, P. Ganesan, D. Gopalakrishnan
- Patternmaking for Fashion Design by Helen Joseph Armstrong
- Metric Pattern Cutting for Women’s Wear, 5th Edition By Winifred Aldrich
- Designing Clothes with the Flat Pattern Method: Customize Fitting Shells to Create Garments in Any Style by Sara Alm
- Dressmaking: The Complete Step by Step Guide to Making Your Own Clothes by Alison Smith
- Guide to Basic Garment Assembly for the Fashion Industry by Jayne Smith
