#collar project

Final Product- 22/4/2021

I set up my collar in front of a black backdrop to take some photographs on my dress form.  I felt this gave really clear imagery, and great contrast.  Once I finished the basic product-photos, I also modeled the collar myself and took a few photos.  While I don’t feel quite comfortable as a model and I’m never happy with the faces I make, I’m pretty happy with how the photos came out and how it shows the difference of the collar on a dress form and the collar actually worn on a moving body.

Trims and Closures- 20/4-22/4/2021

After wiring and binding the edges of my collar, I began to trim the edge and the collar stand with my crochet lace.  At first I was worried that this wouldn’t sit right and would distract from my suffrage design, but I found it not only accented the suffrage design, but helped to bring a bit more of the Elizabethan feel I was looking for to this design. 

Now that my panel pieces are all embroidered, I began putting my pieces together.  I stitched together the panel pieces, interfaced the collar stand pieces and stitched the bottom edge together on the collar stand.  I then stitched the inside of the collar stand into the neck of the collar piece itself, leaving it open so that I can extend the boning channels into the collar stand.  I am currently in the process of hand stitching in my boning channels.  I chose to use Petersham ribbon for this, and prick stitch it in.  In retrospect, I probably would have been better to buy bone casing instead, but my supplier for that sometimes takes 2-3 weeks to get it to me from the UK, and with Brexit customs, I didn’t want to take my chances.  The Petersham still gives a nice clean look, and will still be strong enough to stop the boning from poking through.  I will say I am really happy with how the stiffening has helped to give this collar a bit more structure.  I look forward to seeing the result once I have added the boning and wire around the outside.