For this project I decided to really challenge myself and make not just a collar and cuffs but also a waistcoat! I used an old striped shirt and a velvet primary dress both of which I got ages ago in a charity shop but never wore.
Throughout this project I made sure to stick to my theme and mood board which I think I did really, really well in; I’ll include the mood board below for reference.
So, the first step that I took was obviously arranging all my materials and things I needed. I gathered together some dark green thread as I had no black, a needle, scissors, a mannequin, the shirt and dress, I also got a mannequin to work on that just happened to be roughly my size!
I worked at nighttime on this project entirely, leaving the days for normal school work and other things, so some of the pictures taken of the process are quite fuzzy because of this and fir that I must apoplogise.
The first piece of the puzzle that I was to complete was the biggest and hardest part; the waistcoat. I was really, really worried that I wouldn’t have enough time for all three and that it was silly to start with the extra part of the project but I got it all done really quickly and I have loads of time to spare which I’m really glad of!
I had no sewing machine or pattern to follow so I mostly just winged this entire project which was fine by me because I hate reading instructions.
To start, I put the velvet dress on the mannequin and cut down the middle of the front, then I proceeded to cut of the sleeves, the high neck and below the waist. Once all this parts were removed I put them to the side for later. The original idea for this waistcoat was to have a traditional style of waistcoat which buttoned at the front and had a pointed shape at the bottom but that didn’t go as planned at all.
I hadn’t enough fabric to do that, it would have had to be stretched to fit the mannequin so what I did instead was make a front panel to the waistcoat.
I hemmed this piece of fabric first before sewing it onto the left hand side of the waistcoat. I then cut three slits into the right hand side of the waistcoat and sewed around them to give it some strength and structure, these would be the buttonholes.
I left the panel for a second to start on the collar. I made a long triangular shape out of the velvet scrap fabric and folded it in two, I stitched along the sides then flipped it inside out so the threads wouldn’t be seen, I then attached them to the waistcoat. They aren’t exactly symmetrical but I really tried my hardest. I sewed the left hand collar down completely but I made sure to leave part of the right collar unattached so that the waistcoat could come off and on again easily.
I then went back to the waistcoat and added six beautiful buttons onto either side of the panel. There were three big ones and three smaller ones, the two big ones went on top but there is a pair that don’t exactly match but I don’t think it’s all that noticeable. After the buttons were secured, the waistcoat was now able to be buttoned up!
The next step I took was to hem the front part of the waistcoat. I’m still quite disappointed at this part as no matter what I did I could not get the bottom to lie straight. It was quite annoying but I really didn’t know how to fix it…
You can see the unevenness of the bottom of the waistcoat in this picture. I don’t have any other photographs from the process because the rest just entailed me cutting a little slit at the back of the waistcoat and making tails and hemming all of that. After I finished all the hemming and the tails of the waistcoat, I stitched a little bit above where the slit stops to cinch in the waist a little more and give it a bit more structure. I really like how this ended up looking, I think it looks quite elegant.
The very final step was hemming the arm holes and then the waistcoat was finished! Except, it didn’t really look like it was. It looked too plain and unfinished so I cut out two strips of fabric from the shirt, hemmed them at all sides and made them into little bows. I fastened one at the back above the slit and one at the front where the collars meet. That was when it finally felt finished and I could move on!
The next step was the collar. It is shown above a few times with the waistcoat because I wanted this to be like a full outfit inspired by my mood board and chosen word; non binary.
It was relatively easy to make once I wrapped my head around how to make the pleats but it required a lot of fabric and I was worried I wouldn’t have enough for the matching cuffs but it all, worked out fine.
To begin I cut out thick strips of fabric and hemmed them. Then I began folding the fabric along. In the end I needed four large strips of fabric for it all to fit on my neck. Once all pleated and all parts sewn together I wondered for a while if I would have to make my own black velvet ribbon from the velvet scraps but I got lucky and found a long black velvet ribbon lying around my house. I sewed it onto the middle of the pleats and this collar is fastened at the back by tying the ribbon into a beautiful bow!
The final step is the cuffs. The design and execution of these cuffs follows a similar pattern to the collar. However, I messed it up unfortunately.. I was meant to attach buttons so that the collar could be done up easily but I didn’t take this into consideration when cutting the fabric, I only considered my wrist size. This lead to the cuffs not closing completely as you’ll see and having to be fastened with ribbons- not the easiest to do up yourself!
To start, I cut out two strips of fabric which already had buttonholes in them, I hemmed them and put them to the side. I then moved on to the pleats I needed four or five large strips of fabric for this, however I was beginning to run out of fabric so I didn’t hem them in order to save fabric; another issue encountered in the creation of these shabby cuffs. Once the pleats were done I sewed them down onto the strips I made previously. This was originally where I was going to leave it but I felt they didn’t tie in with the rest of the outfit as well as I would have liked and in the end I came to the conclusion that this was because there was no black velvet in the cuffs to tie it all together! So I copied the length of the cuffs and went looking for two scraps of velvet that matched. After I found the strips needed I cut them to matching sizes, hemmed and attached them. Finally, I attached the ribbons in the back and the cuffs were finished!
All in all, I think I did a pretty ok job at this project all aspects of it could definitely be improved. I think my favourite part is the neck collar as it looks even better on in real life I think!