Attaching the Collars // Clare Coat Sewalong

Now that you've assembled the body of your Clare Coat, it's time to attach the collars. I am going to cover both View A and View B in this post so you can just skip to the part you need.

If you're making View A, it's crucial to stabilize the collar. Since it's meant to sit up and away from your face, the horsehair interfacing I suggested earlier will do the job perfectly. If you couldn't find it, you can get away with using something like a thick sew-in canvas instead. Regardless of whether or not you are using horsehair or canvas, you'll want to stabilize the inner and outer collar with weft fusible; the collar fabric wants that extra body. Please note that the additional horsehair canvas will be applied to the outer collar.

I used sew-in horsehair rather than fusible for my coat. I simply basted it to my collar just inside the seam allowance and then trimmed as close as possible to the stitching to reduce bulk (the horsehair is stiff so it's best to eliminate it at seam lines when possible). If you're using sew-in horsehair and have done pad stitching before, you can certainly do it here, although I didn't bother and the finished result suits me fine. If you're using fusible horsehair, trim 1/2" off the outside edges before fusing it to your fabric.

Disclaimer: I shot this part of the sewalong before I realized the collar piece had been incorrectly mirrored. The following collar pictures for View A should actually go in the opposite direction.

Once your collar is interfaced and ready to go, line up your collar with the coat neckline. Again, the pictures below are not quite correct. The collar as shown below should actually be mirrored, with the curved part attached to the front coat.

Pin collar into place. It's always a little tricky when you're sewing two curved seams to each other so you may have to ease it into place.

Similar to the sleeves, I like sewing in my twill tape as I sew the collar to the coat. You want to sew with the body of the coat facing up so the twill tape is sewn to the coat rather than the collar.

Again, your collar will be mirrored from what you're seeing here once it's sewn in.

The inside of the coat with twill tape along the seam:

Press your collar seam open and the collar up. That's it for View B!

For View B, it's a little simpler. You don't need horsehair interfacing here, so just make sure both inner and outer collar have been stabilized with fusible. Pin the collar to the coat, matching notches.

Sew along the length, sewing the twill tape down as you go to the body side of the coat.

Press your seam open and the collar up.

And that's it for today! Friday we will install the asymmetrical zipper for View A!