A Pretty Patchwork Collar to Sew in a Couple of Hours

I have fallen HARD for patchwork but as I'm easily distracted at the moment, big projects are beyond me for now. But a pretty little collar gives me the opportunity to patchwork something really wonderful in only a few hours and add a little magic to my handmade wardrobe.

I'm using my Bess Collar pattern which has really beautiful proportions and can be sewn as a collar on it's own or with the neckband. I'm sewing just the collar so it's more wearable for warmer days.

Buy the Bess Collar

I had a wonderful time sorting through my treasured Liberty fabric scraps!

The joy of patchwork is you can use even the tiniest little scrap of fabric treasure and as Bess is a small project, you can easily use them all up. Then every time you wear your Bess, you can remember all the moments those fabrics were part of and enjoy those moments again.

I 'matched' my fabrics to one of my most worn DIY Vampires Wife dresses with the idea of wearing it to the Jack in The Green celebration here in Hastings. I picked out the colours in the print on the dress {which is Rose & Hubble I think?!} and then laid out potential fabrics next to it. It's a good idea to photograph this bit as you can see in the photograph you take any fabrics that aren't going to work. Selecting my fabrics took the most time but was such a pleasurable way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

You will need to cut out 1 collar piece in a base fabric. I used a cotton I had leftover from a previous project. You will be sewing your patchwork onto this cotton collar piece.

I took a moment to lay out the fabrics to see if I was totally happy with my selection and as I was, I moved onto the next bit of this satisfying sewing adventure.

I made each strip of fabric 6 cms wide and that includes the seam allowance which was 1 cms. I cut the strips as I went rather than in one go. That way I could check the length I needed as this varied on the collar.

Incidentally, this was the only non Liberty fabric I used ~ It's from a repro Laura Ashley dress that I took up and I saved the fabric as it's so pretty and I loved the shade of green.

I found the centre of the collar base and centred the first strip which I sewed in place. I then placed and pinned the next strip right sides down on the first strip and sewed it along the pinned edge. I turned it the right way and pressed it flat and repeated the process.

I worked out from the centre, sewing a strip each side until the base collar was covered.

Here's the collar from the reverse once all the strips are sewn in place. It looks a bit unremarkable but the magic is about to happen!

It was so satisfying trimming around the collar and seeing the patchwork revealed! I was so pleased with how the fabrics looked together.

I cut bias binding 5cms wide and also made the ties following the instructions in the Bess Collar pattern. In all I spent 3 hours happily stitching my patchwork collar, not including tea breaks and photographing the process so that I could share it. I was so happy with the finished piece and love that it can be worn with my dress or with other pieces that go with the fabrics I used.

A funny thing happened when I got dressed for Jack in the Green! The zip broke on my dress so I couldn't wear it! Luckily, I had that repro Laura Ashley dress to wear instead and I thoroughly enjoyed celebrating a magical day!

I hope you give this little confident beginner friendly project a go ~ It's the perfect way to use up those treasured fabric scraps and create a truly unique and special Heirloom wardrobe piece!

Tara x