Look closely at the collar that my Ken doll is wearing in the image above. Do you notice anything strange about the collar?
Zoom in. Do you see that little white circle under his collar?
That’s actually the head of a straight pin. Uh-huh. His collar wouldn’t stay down for the photo shoot, so what did I do? I pinned it down!
What works better than a straight pin? A stitch…
Collar Tip #3: Tack the Collar onto the Shirt with a Quick Stitch
My grandmother would say, “You cheated!” But when it comes to making doll clothes, I’ll be the first to admit that there’s plenty of cheating going on! Only I don’t call it cheating; I call it alteration.
Yes, I often sew the collar to the shirt from underneath. This will help you get a really stiff collar to lay flat, and as long as your collar has a top and bottom layer, you can easily hide your stitches in the bottom layer of the shirt collar.
That’s what I do with nearly all of my shirt collars, when I want them to lay flat. Even big dolls can benefit with this one. So if I were making the 16 inch baby doll collars shown in views 3 and 4 of my vintage Simplicity baby doll clothes pattern #1844, I would definitely tack these collars down with a stitch or two.
I mean, look how narrow those collars are! There’s no way those things are going to lay against the bodice correctly without some stitching from the underside.
In fact, I’d probably do that for all three of the patterns shown in this image:
Ken’s shirt collar is never going to stay down without tacking it onto the shirt somewhere on that Simplicity doll clothes pattern number 7928. No way! Neither will Barbie’s.
But as I noted last week, an 18 inch doll’s collar may be okay, if you’re using really, really thin fabric. However, coats aren’t usually made out of thin fabric.
And the doll in the center of this Simplicity 4364 doll clothes pattern is definitely wearing a coat made of cotton or maybe denim.
So if you don’t want to sew the collar to the jacket, what else can you do? I’ll talk about another alternative that’s especially helpful with big dolls’ collars in next week’s blog post…
Most of the commercial patterns I display and talk about here on ChellyWood.com are also available for sale on eBay. However, if you’ve never purchased a pattern on eBay before, it’s a good idea to read the article I wrote called, “Tips for Buying Used Doll Clothes Patterns on eBay.” It will save you time, money, and will likely prevent buyer’s remorse.
And by the way, if you use the links I’ve provided to make your eBay purchase, this website will receive a small commission, which helps fund the ChellyWood.com website, so I can continue to provide you with all the free patterns and tutorial videos offered here.
Another great way to help fund this website is to take my Creative Spark class, “How to Alter Doll Clothes Patterns” which is now live on the Creative Spark platform. You can sign up any time you want–there’s no rush!
And don’t panic if it seems like too much to take on right now — sometimes our lives get really busy. I get that.
But for any class on Creative Spark, once you’re signed up, you can take as long as you want to finish the class. You’re not under pressure or a time constraint to finish your lessons.
You can just take your time and learn at the pace that suits you.
If you enjoyed today’s sewing tip for making doll clothes collars, and you’d like to see what other helpful doll clothes sewing tips I have offered on this website, please visit the “Helpful Tips” page.
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Chelly Wood and the ChellyWood.com website are not affiliated with the pattern company or companies mentioned in this blog post, but Chelly finds inspiration in the doll clothes designed by these pattern companies. To purchase patterns from Simplicity, McCall’s, Butterick, Vogue, or other pattern companies shown and discussed in this blog post, please click on the links provided here. These links below the “Disclaimer” section do not help raise money for this free pattern website; they are only offered to give credit to the company that made these patterns.