I have been lucky to have been part of a number of great series over the past two years, but today’s post is part of a really special one. ‘What would Celina do?’ is a series dedicated to sewing blogger, Pinner Extraordinaire and Stylo co-founding editor Celina Bailey. Organized by Laura of CraftStorming, this super secret series features over 30 sewing bloggers who, all today, post a project inspired by one of Celina’s wonderful creations, tutorials, or aesthetic more generally. Best part is, of course, that Celina didn’t know anything about this series until today! Hi hi.
Celina is one of the first people I started following on Pinterest. And while today, I follow 372 pinners, I often feel like I could have just as well stuck to that one British-Moroccan-Canadian pinner with her nose for gorgeous children’s clothing (among many other things). If it’s worth pinning, there’s a good chance that it is on one of Celina’s boards already.
My inspiration for the dress I’m blogging today did not come from Pinterest though, but from a tutorial posted on Celina’s blog. Celina’s tutorial teaches you how to make an inserted peter pan collar with a contrasting fabric. My tutorial today will show you how to make such a collar with piping.
But first, a bit more about the dress. I used my Hanami dress pattern, but left off the flutter sleeves (as well as the regular peter pan collar, obviously). The fabric is 1000 Cranes by Rashida Coleman Hale for Cloud 9 – one of my favorite fabrics ever. I used it before to make a sleep sack and a skirt (not blogged), and I have 2 more yards waiting to be turned into a dress for myself. The term addiction might apply here.
I’m only now realizing how well dark blue suits Norah. I’ve never been drawn that much to blue (perhaps because my school uniform was dark blue?) but I am now. Many of the latest additions to my fabric stash are dark blue, so you’ll be seeing many more blue creations on this blog in the coming months. A bit ironic, given that Norah’s favorite color has recently changed from blue to pink (condolences can be sent to straightgrainblog [at] gmail.com).
Tutorial
But let’s return to the inserted piped peter pan collar. Imagine she wanted to make such a collar – what would Celina do? It might be something like this:
1. Take your bodice front pattern, and draw the shape of a peter pan collar on it (red line).
Note: I’m using the Hanami pattern, in which seam allowances are inlcuded.
2. Next, draw seam allowance around the curved edge of the collar (green line).
Tip: it is best to use the same seam allowance your piping has; that way, you can align your piping with the edge of the collar in step 4 (as you’ll notice, I neglected to do this).
Use this new pattern for cutting your two inserts (do not cut them out of your bodice piece!)
3. Next, trace seam allowance at the other side of the original peter pan shape you drew in step one (blue line). Use the same seam allowance as you used in step 2.
Use this new pattern to cut the collar out of the bodice.
6. Using your zipper or cording foot, stitch the piping along the rounded edges of the collar pieces.
7. Stitch the collar pieces into the openings you made in the bodice, with right sides together. Use your zipper or cording foot, and stitch right into the stitch line you created in step 6. Pinning it first is almost impossible, so I just stitched very carefully and made sure not to stretch any of the parts.
8. Reduce the seam allowances and cut off any excess piping. Your front bodice piece is ready, and you can now finish the dress as you usually would!