Sewing today-March 1

I was able to get in about two hours of sewing this afternoon. The collar that I am using for this jacket is rather time consuming. The neckline of the upper collar is gathered. You then sew the lining piece for the under collar to the upper collar which is a stay for the upper collar. You have to adjust the gathers to fit the lining for the under collar. It is important to make sure you have marked the under collar and upper collar pieces so that the gathers will line up. After stitching this part of the collar to lining, you then stitch the outer edges together. This will aid in the turn of fabric for the upper collar and again anchoring the gathers.

Getting the gathers to look similar on both sides takes a little time and depending on the fabric you choose I believe this could become difficult for a brocade fabric. Once this was done, you then attach the under collar fabric piece by stitching the outer edges. After doing this I trimmed these seams before understitching.

Next, you baste the inner edges of upper collar, lining and under collar together. I used a zigzag stitch just along the edges. With the gathers and fabric thickness, I thought the zigzag would aid in flatting that edge. You then baste collar to jacket. I decided to just pin the collar to the jacket. You will be attaching a facing to this area. I did not want to baste or stitch this area anymore as it has already been stitched twice. With the looser weave of this fabric and because I cut the upper collar on the bias, I just did not want to keep stitching in this area for fear of stretching. Perhaps all the stitching so far as helped stabilize this area.

I am taking a break and getting ready to prepare dinner.