Deepening the collar of the Relaxed Drawstring Dress

The Relaxed Drawstring Dress, comes with two collar options: the deep round neck or a turtleneck. However it’s relatively simple to convert the turtle to a deeper almost cowl neck, as shown here. Here's how....

Take your two turtleneck pattern pieces and trace off your size. Cut in half lengthways and separate by the increased depth you would like. For example the pattern piece depth measures 7cm and creates a collar with a depth of 5cm.

The checked version featured in the Autumn/Winter 18 magazine and shown here has a finished depth of 10cm so the two pieces need to be spaced with an additional 5cm in between. Once you've spaced your pieces attach an additional strip of paper behind, then draw a line from the top point to the bottom point on either side as shown. Cut out or retrace and construct your new collar as shown in the pattern instructions

I decided to cut the new collar on the bias. It shows off the tartan design and accentuates those details. Ideally you should use a fusible interfacing to stabilize the fabric. However I'm not always keen on the stiffened effect that has, so here I just took extra care not to stretch my fabric in the sewing process - this is tricky and requires practice.

The cuffs were also cut on the bias to match the collar.