Goldstream Sew-Along: Collar and Hood

If you are only adding the collar to your Goldstream Peacoat and will not be sewing the hood, today is a very quick stint of sewing and gives you a chance to rest or catch up! If you are adding the hood, things will be a little more involved.

Collar

Let's begin with the collar. Gather your Upper Collar and Under Collar pieces. Make sure they are clearly marked so that you don't forget which is the upper and which is the under! I like to mark the under collar with chalk or a pin.  Both pieces should already be interfaced. Staystitch along the bottom curved edge from notch to notch. This stitching prevents the wool from stretching out while you are working with these pieces so that the finished collar will fit perfectly onto the neckline later.

Place the two collar pieces with right sides together and stitch along the sides and top of the collar using a 5/8" seam allowance.  Remember to sew one or two stitches at a 45 degree angle at each point to make sure your corners will look crisp when the collar is turned right side out.

At this point I like to understitch as far as I can along the top of the collar.  I open up the collar the best that I can and stitch the undercollar to the seam allowance. This just makes it easier to ensure the seam rolls towards the undercollar when you are pressing and topstitching later.

Grade the seam allowances and clip the corners thoroughly.

Turn the collar right side out and press. You might need to clip into the seam allowance further at each notch so that the raw edges sit flat. You can baste along the bottom of the collar at this point if you would like to keep the two raw edges together.

Hood

On to the hood! Gather your hood and hood lining pieces.  The hood features a dart for shaping so let's sew that first. Pinch the dart with right sides together and stitch from the hood edge to the point.

As we did with the front darts (if you chose to sew those), do not backstitch at the dart tip.  Instead, avoid puckers by leaving loose strings and then knotting them by hand. Press the dart towards the straight front of the hood.  If your lining material is bulky (if it is quilted, for instance), you could press the lining dart the opposite direction to reduce bulk when you sew the hood and lining together.

Place the hood pieces with right sides together and sew along the big curve to complete the shape of the hood. Since this curve is quite exaggerated, it will not press smoothly unless we clip into the seam allowances. Make little notch shapes with your scissors to allow room for the seam allowances to bunch together when the hood is flipped right side out. Press the entire seam open - it helps to use a tailor's ham here to retain the curved shape of the hood but you can also just use the edge of your ironing board and iron small sections of the seam at a time.

Now we'll do the same steps to create our hood lining. Leave a 4" gap though so that the hood can be turned right side out later.

To attach the lining to the hood, place them with right sides together.  You'll notice the lining is smaller than the hood because the hood will have a self facing. Make the hood front edges match and ignore the bottom of the hood for now. Stitch around the hood front. Grade the seam allowance to reduce bulk (if your lining is bulky, if it isn't, grading at this step isn't essential). Press the seam allowances towards the lining.

Now we can manipulate the fabric to create our self facing. Match the hood and lining darts.  You will notice that, in doing so, the hood wants to fold at the notched fold line. Pin along the bottom and stitch, starting the stitching at the notched fold so that the wool facing becomes part of the inside of the hood.

Our hood is almost finished! Flip it right side out through the hole and press along the hood edge so that the facing is formed. Topstitch around the entire hood (edge and bottom) 3/8" from the edge of the fabric.

Take a moment to handsew the hole in the lining closed or remember to do this later when we perform the rest of our finishing handstitches.

Last up, we can add the buttonholes! This can be done now or saved for when we add the buttonholes to the front of our coat. The holes should be 1/8" wider than your chosen button.

That's it for today! Next post will be a fairly large one as we will make the entire coat lining in one go. Are you ready?