Hot Under the Collar

Apparently I look like an
ostrich to the rest of the world...

Inspired by this month's Mollie Makes magazine, I wanted to cheer up my old knackered denim jacket with a fake Peter Pan Collar. This jacket is at least 13 years old and probably deserves a mini Jubilee in itself for the service it has provided. But it is a little love-worn and is starting to go in places, so I hoped perking it up might make it last a little longer.

All you need:

Poor old jacket...

Strip of pretty fabric big enough to cover the collar;
Equal sized strip of double-sided bondaweb;
An iron (and asbestos fingers);
Sewing machine (although you can do it by hand)

How to:
Trim off the old collar and place it on the bondaweb that's folded in half. This will form your pattern. Draw a collar shape with a curved edge that's equal in length to the original collar, cut out and measure against the neck of your jacket to make sure it fits.

Iron one side of the bondaweb onto your fabric (reverse side) then trim...It's really important that on the inner curve you allow a 5mm seam allowance for turning around and over the collar. Starting in the middle, pin right side to the inside of you jacket, both sides.

Sew along your pinning line -I take the pins out as I go because a) I usually bend them and b) if I don't bend them I snap them, and don't want to sew wearing safety goggles. Then (and this is the fiddly bit) fold over the collar and iron as you go along. If you've ever covered school-books, the principle is the same -start at the edge and carefully fold over and iron. Get the pretty scoop collar ends right, and expect a couple of folds -it looks pretty and more like a 'real' collar. Finally, sew over the top around the edge. Off to Neverland...