As you know already, I make lots of shirts for my oldest son to wear to work. This week, I decided to try David Coffin's technique for attaching the collar and collar stand, as detailed in his book,
Shirtmaking.
Rather than the traditional home sewing method of attaching the collar to the collar stand and then sewing the collar stand to the neck opening, Coffin's book details how to stitch the collar stand to the shirt first and then attach the collar to the stand. I like this approach because it allows you greater control over the positioning of the collar in relation to the center front.
I have to admit, though, that I have some trouble controlling the bulk that is formed where the collar stand is joined to the shirt front. I just can't seem to get a nice crisp corner there. It looks okay. I guess. But I'm not entirely pleased with the roundedness of that corner. I definitely like the look of the conventional method better, even if it is pretty hard to get the collar stand seam to line up just so with the front edge.
This side looks a little better, more like what I was hoping for. Maybe it's just that I need some more practice with this new technique. In many ways it's easier to get the topstitching to look more professional, but in other ways it's definitely more difficult. The collar still doesn't have that nice, clearly defined right angle like it gets when the conventional method, though. I'm not entirely sure that it's possible. I'm a little disappointed that David's book doesn't include more closeup pictures of his shirts' details.
So, do you do shirt collars and how do you sew them? Have you ever tried David Coffin's method and what do you think?
I got the book a few months ago and was impressed by the method he describes . I am yet to try it out however. I am relatively new to shirt making and have so far made about 15 shirts in three different sizes ( three males in the family, various ages) and so far have only used the method described in the Jalie 2111 instructions. I must admit I too was overall a little disappointed by the book - it seems to describe too many of his own idiosyncratic methods, as it were , and not enough technical detail as I expected.
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