Think about your favorite t-shirt or dress. How do you feel about the neckline?
Necklines sit front and center on our bodies so if the neckline is too high or low or you
really prefer v-necks to crew necks, you might find yourself wearing that garment not quite as
much as you'd like to. Luckily necklines are really easy to adjust. If you find a
pattern that fits you great but you aren't that into the neck all you have to do is change it.
When you're working from a lower neckline to a higher neckline you need to reverse
engineer the shaping. This is because the pattern maker has built shaping into this lower neckline.
something with a lower neckline will typically have a flatter shoulder slope and something
with a higher neckline will typically have a more sloped shoulder line. This was drafted to account
for the delta between your high point shoulder and your shoulder point. To transform a low neckline
into a crew neck, we'll need essentially to work backwards. It is safe to assume that when drafting
a scoop neckline or a v-neckline a pattern maker has accounted for the hollow of your shoulder.
This is true for the Orlando t-shirt and I'm going to use it as an example. So here's how to create a
crew neckline working with the assumption that your hollows are already considered.
Start by removing the seam allowance at the shoulder seam and the neckline
then determine the desired width and depth of your neckline. The easiest way to do this is to
hold the cut pattern piece against your body. Align the center front of the pattern piece
with the center line of your body and align the shoulder seam with your shoulder. Lay your pattern
piece on your working surface and tape a piece of pattern paper underneath the existing neckline.
Use a ruler to measure how far you'd like to extend the center front and the shoulder
seam. Here I'm extending the center front by five inches and the shoulder seam by an inch and a half.
Then extend the neckline at the shoulder by an extra quarter of an inch,
then redraw that shoulder seam,
then redraw the neckline with a french curve.
To avoid creating an unintentional v-neck, you'll want to square off the center front
neckline. To do this, use a clear ruler to make the center most portion of your
neckline perpendicular to the center front fold line, about a half of an inch should do
the trick. Add seam allowance to the front neckline and the shoulder seam,
then cut out your pattern piece.
Now let's draft the back neckline. Tape some pattern paper below the neckline of the back piece
then extend the shoulder seam by the same increment as the front.
Use a french curve to redraw the back neckline making sure it's squared off at the center back.
Again, extend the neckline by a quarter of an inch to account for the higher neckline,
then redraw that shoulder seam. Add your seam allowance and then cut it all out.
A boat neckline is a wide but shallow neckline. This particular neckline intersects the hollows
of the shoulder slope so that's the only pattern accommodation needed beyond redrawing the neckline.
I'm going to show you how to transform a round neckline into a boat neckline using the Bo top as
an example. Note if you're working with a top like Orlando, which already has a pretty wide neckline,
you can just skip contouring the shoulder seams and just redraw the neckline. Start by removing
the seam allowance at the shoulder seam and the neckline, then determine the desired width and
depth of your neckline. The easiest way to do this is to hold the cut pattern piece against your body.
Align the center front of the pattern piece with the center front line of your body
and align the shoulder seams along your shoulder. Use a ruler to measure the desired width and depth
of your new neckline. Depending on your pattern and your preferences you may choose to reduce the
neckline with or leave it as is. In this example, I raised the neckline by three inches and widened
it by one inch. Use a ruler to mark the desired neckline at the shoulder and the center front,
then redraw the neckline with a french curve.
Reduce the neckline at the shoulder by a quarter of an inch and then redraw that shoulder seam.
To avoid creating an unintentional v-neck, you'll want to square off the center front neckline.
To do this use a clear ruler to make the center-most portion of your neckline perpendicular
to that center front fold line - about a half of an inch should do the trick. Repeat these steps
for the back neckline making sure that the shoulder seam matches the center front piece.