Oh how I love collars--they can definitely make an outfit. One of the great things about vintage sewing is that there are a lot of detachable collar patterns. Having a couple basic dresses with lots of interchangeable collars and cuffs was very popular in the 1930s all the way up to the 1970s as was dickies or false shirt fronts (a trend picked up again from Edwardian and earlier fashions).Here's some lovely examples of collar patterns:
1930's
1940's:1. 1930's collar and dickey pattern, available at this shop on Etsy; 2. Early 30's collars and belts pattern from my collection; 3. Early to mid 30's dress pattern with large collar, available at Best Vintage Patterns, 4. 1930's removable fur collar and cuffs, photo from here.
1. 1941 McCall removable collar to embroider or smock, from my collection 2. 1940s dickey pattern, available at this shop on Etsy; 3. mid 40's blouse with jabot collar, available at this shop on Etsy; 4. 1940's Advance dickey pattern, available from this shop on Etsy.1950's
1. 1950 collars, cuffs and vestee pattern, available at this shop on Etsy. 2. 1950s collar and matching bouquet pattern, sewn up by Marie at A Sewing Oddysey; 3. McCall's 1950's hats, collars and cuffs pattern, available at this shop on Etsy; 4. 1940's McCall's collars, shawl and cuffs pattern, available from this shop on Etsy.More 1950's patterns for basic dresses with interchangeable collars:
1. 1950's dress with removable collars, available at this shop on Etsy. 2. 1950s dress with collars, scarf and capelet, available at this shop on Etsy; 3. McCall's 1950's scoop neck dress with collar variations, available at this shop on Etsy; 4. 1950's Simplicity 3973 dress with overlay collar/cape, available from this shop on Etsy.
1960's
1. 1969 shift dress with collar and cuff variations, available at this shop on Etsy. 2. 1960s collar variations including ruffled collar, available at Heavens to Betsy Vintage; 3. Simplicity 1960's dress with collar variations, available at this shop on Ecrater; 4. 1960's McCall's collar variations, available from Another Time pattern shop.
My First Dress: A Removable Collars and Cuffs Project:
I'm definitely in love with collars. In fact, the very first dress I made had detachable collar and cuffs. I've made it a point to revisit this dress at the same time every year on the date that I posted my first ever blog post (on this very dress). So far I've done yellow and green collar and cuffs. Maybe this year I'll go for purple or another colour of green? What colour do you I should do next?
Collar Sewing Tutorials and Resources:
Here are some fabulous resources (leave a comment if you know of others not on this list!)
- Great tutorials from Casey's Elegant Musings on making a detachable autumn collar and a faux fur collar.
- Casey also did a two-part series on creating a scalloped 1930's inspired collar for the Pendrell blouse (or any other blouse), check out part 1 and part 2 of the tutorial.
- Gertie also did a three-part tutorial series on drafting a peter pan collar. Check out part 1, part 2, and part 3 of that tutorial.
- The Coletterie blog has loads of inspiration for vintage inspired collars. Check out their tutorial on making a lace overlay collar, a faux fur collar (with free pattern) and their recent post on collar inspirations details.
- Sunni over at A Fashionable Stitch recently did a shirt dress collar tutorial
- Tuppence Ha'penny Vintage has a great tutorial on drafting a sailor collar
- Also check out Brittany's guest post at Tuppence Ha'penny Vintage's blog on making a beaded collar
- Megan Nielson put together a great tutorial on constructing a scalloped edge beaded detachable collar
- If you crochet, there are some amazing free vintage crochet collar patterns available here.
- The Costumer's Manifesto has a great list of free patterns for men's and women's detachable collars from the 1850s to the 1930s.
- See Kate Sew has a neat ruffle collar pattern and tutorial.
