Now I must say a word about coat collars in particular. In visiting different tailor shops we find that the dressing of the under-collar is accomplished in many different ways, and for aught I know all may be right—if they suit the customer, or if the collar is on, as it is required by the coat. Coats which require a collar to be stretched nearly into a circle around the back are often cut too low or too wide at the neck. For such a round-shaped collar may be required to close well in at the neck, but it will never make an elegant job, and such coats usually indicate too much cloth in the shape of wrinkles below the collar, or on the top of the shoulders. A collar must not run with the slope of the shoulders, but must turn upward at the side of the neck to permit it to pass through. It must stand up, no matter if a turn-down part is cut on or if it stands alone, as on military or clergymen’s coats. A well fitting military or clergyman’s coat requires for its standing collar nothing but a straight piece of cloth, and sewed on straight. It will not be too loose at the top, nor will it “saw” the neck sore in half an hour.
Now, a coat collar, with a turn-down, represents a standing collar over the top of the back and side of the neck, as shown in Dia. [VII], and on that piece or wedge the turn-down part is added. This wedge, or the standing collar as shown in Dia. [VII], must retain its shape as on a vest, but as soon as the standing collar is stretched at the bottom the spring at the neck is destroyed, and a tight or flat collar is the result at the side of the neck. But to fit the standing collar and turn-down part together, so that the turn-down part is so much larger that it will go around the standing part without strain, the collar should be dressed as follows: Lay the whole under-collar flat on the table and turn and press the standing part up where it belongs, without stretching the outer edge of the turn-down part, and the collar is done. Whatever is trimmed off in front depends upon how far the lapel is to be drawn down. In this respect we all can learn something from an ordinary paper collar, which is a quite flat piece of paper—the break is not on a straight line, but on a curve of about half an inch at the center behind, and they all fit well. Many a cutter and many a journeyman would profit by studying the principle of a turn-down paper collar.
Of late years a great many overcoats, and especially ulsters, have been made with very wide collars, turning down about five inches or more. Such necks should be cut with the standing collar on the top of back and on the side of the forepart and running out to a point at or near the front sleeve base, and an extra spring of not less than one inch added to each shoulder seam, and evenly divided on back and on front. This addition furnishes the standing part of the collar, and the turn-down collar part is put on, just as it is put on to the vest, which will give form to the shape of the shoulder and not lie flat, as most of such collars are seen to-day.
See collar as it is to be pressed.
Armhole and Sleeve.
(SEE DIA. [VII].)
