Replacing a mens shirt collar -- it CAN be done!

Friends, I've always liked this white shirt I stitched for myself in November 2009 and planned to wear to the dreaded event you know where -- now tomorrow, OMG!

Which reminds me: I must make an appointment at the beauty shop...



I was wanting to wear this lovely white shirt tomorrow -- you know the story -- but I had to do something about the collar.  The interfacing hadn't fused well and the collar was visibly puckered.

So I replaced it!  Here's how.

With my seam ripper, I carefully removed the collar stand and attached collar.  Have you ever seen anything yuckier-looking?  The shame...



I then ironed the now-collarless shirt.  The old edgestitching along the neck was still intact.  This is important to keep the area from stretching.



I still had some of the white shirting left, luckily.  (I'd recently dumped a big bag of fabric scraps and was happy to discover this wasn't among of them.)  I experimented with some interfacings I have, but the heavier one was too much like the one that hadn't fused successfully the first time, and the weft-weight one showed through the very fine fabric.





This shirting is so extremely tightly woven it's difficult to get a pin through.  I decided to interface with another layer of my fabric.



I start on the collar: cutting, stitching, trimming, turning, pressing, and topstitching.











I then sew my inside collar band (the side without the interfacing -- the interfaced side will become the outside band) to the inside of the shirt: right side of band to wrong side of shirt.



Separate from the shirt, I attach my finished collar to the outside band along the top: right side of collar band to wrong of collar (which is how they will appear on the completed shirt).

I then stitch the two collar bands together as I would a shirt cuff, and turn.



To finish, I topstitch along the outer edge of the collar band.  Sometimes I go around the whole collar band, sometimes I don't (don't tell David Coffin!).



I then add button and buttonhole (this hole will be horizontal, not vertical like those on the buttonhole placket).

Voilá -- much improved!





I feel so much happier with the new collar, friends, and more confident.

Today I just have to hem my corduroy pants...

and get myself mentally psyched for the big event!



Any questions about the collar?  Last-minute fashion tips?

Happy Friday, everybody!