How to make: An origami collar

December 13, 2013


After I published my dresses in our The 12 Days of Christmas series, I explained that I had photographed the steps along the way whilst constructing Isabella's origami collar.  A few of you left lovely comments saying you would love to see the tutorial, so I decided not to delay (just in case you also plan on making this collar for a Christmas dress)!


As I said in my original post, I was inspired by VINK's gorgeous collar that I pinned a while ago here.  I have since done a bit of spying over at VINK and found out that she is a Belgian blogger who speaks English and is very friendly.  Her name is Linde and she gave me permission to post this tutorial inspired by her collar. She also, at my request, added the 'translate' button to her blog, so now you can read her blog.  The translation is very poor (and sometimes funny), but for me, it still gives me an idea of the post content.  This collar might look really tricky, but it actually was very simple to construct. 

Please note: This tutorial is for construction of the collar and attaching it to the bodice, not for the entire construction of the dress.

Materials:
Paper
Pen
Scissors
Collar fabric - I used white quilting weight cotton and white cotton voile lining
Thin fusible interfacing
Iron
Pins
And of course the dress you are attaching it to!!

Method:

Begin by taking your front bodice piece of your dress (or complete front of dress if it is not separate) and a piece of printing paper.  Follow the photo steps below to create your collar template:






Now it is time to cut your collar pieces.  You will need your outer layer collar fabric, under layer collar fabric and thin fusible interfacing. Note: when ironing your interfacing to your outer collar fabric, make sure you iron it to the wrong side of the fabric so it won't be seen.


   



The remaining steps of the construction of the dress depend on your pattern.  I used the Tinny dress pattern by Straightgrain which has an invisible zipper at the back and neck facing.  I modified the pattern by drafting sleeve facings as I wanted a sleeveless dress. Using this pattern, these were the steps I took to complete my bodice following on from the last step picture above:
 
- with right sides together, sewed two dress bodice backs to bodice front along side seams;
- installed invisible zip;
- sewed on neck facing;
- drafted armhole facings and sewed on;
- sewed side seams.

Because the collar is secured into the shoulder seams, it is not possible to stay stitch the collar down under the collar as you would with a regular collar.  Instead, I sewed several small hand stitches from the back of the dress through the bottom of the collar to hold it flat around the neck opening. 
 
 
I hope you like my tutorial and I would love to hear if you use it to make your own origami collar!  You can see more photos of this dress here.
 

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20 comments

  1. Great tutorial, Suz. Definetely on my to-do list :-)

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  2. Hi Suz, great tutorial!
    I've made a blogpost with a link to your blog/tutorial.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you linde! And thank you for the lovely inspiration:))

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  3. How pretty Suz! Your daughter looks lovely on her green dress!

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  4. great tutorial, suz!
    I have to try it. I know Teresa would love a dress with a origami colar.
    thanks!

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  5. This is awesome! And I have the Tinny dress, too, but haven't sewed one yet, so this is a perfect opportunity! I really wanted to try this collar very soon. Thank you for the tutorial :)

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  6. Perfect! Thank you so much!

    Natalie
    XX

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  7. Great tutorial Suz, I will use it in the next dress I sew for my daughter.

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  8. really nice tutorial. must try

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  9. Love that collar! Great tutorial; thank you!

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  10. Super creative! I've never seen a collar like this!

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  11. Thank you for the feature!! I don't know how I missed this! I was searching through your Favs and came across this post and saw my piece. I was moving during that week so I guess I wasn't reading my daily blog reads as much. office furniture Brisbane really appreciate it :)

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  12. Lovely! I'm looking for any excuse to use this now.

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