The gaping neckline: how to modify your pattern ?

If you have a small back (or your pattern large 🙃), you may find that some of your clothes gape at the neckline. Personally, this often happens to me with ready-to-wear clothes, but also with the ones I sew myself. In this article, I'll show you how you can quickly modify your sewing patterns to fix this problem. You'll see, it's very easy 😉

The gaping neckline

For this little demonstration, I took one of my fabrics to simulate a gaping neckline at the back. And yes, to make the alterations I'm going to show you, you'll need a prototype. If you've already sewn your pattern want to sew a new version, you can also follow my advice by looking at the first version you sewed.

So here we have a neckline that gapes at the back and forms a sort of bird's beak:

Step one: pinch the neckline

To remove excess fabric, the first step is to pinch the fabric so that the neckline fits your body shape as well as possible. Then, pin to secure this fold.

Note: You don't necessarily need a mannequin or someone to help you fix this pleat. Personally, to do this step, I put the garment on, look at myself in the mirror, pinch and pin 😉

I recommend doing this step in several stages. Once you have pinned the fold, check that you are comfortable and that there is enough ease around the neckline. When you are satisfied, you can move on to the next step.

Step two: we measure

Now you can measure the excess that you will need to remove from the pattern. To do this, look at the profile. In the photo below, you can see that there is about1 cmof excess. This is the amount that we will remove from the pattern.

💡 A little math exercise: in reality, the total excess is 2 cm. But remember, we folded our fabric in half. And this is also the case with sewing patterns: they are cut on the fold or in two layers of fabric!So we will need to remove 1 cm from our pattern.

Step three: modify the neckline of pattern

Here is the back of my pattern . I mark the "1 cm" to be removed starting from the center back. Then, I draw a line from this point to join the center back at the waist. So we remove the excess just at the neckline, but not at the waist! Hence this slanted line!

Then, you can either cut pattern your pattern this line or fold your pattern this line. Personally, I prefer the latter option because it allows me to keep the pattern in case I ever need it again.

Note: whether your garment has a seam (e.g., zipper in the middle of the back) or not (the back is made from a single piece) in the middle of the back, the procedure is exactly the same.

The pieces adjacent to the neckline

If you alter the neckline of your garment, you will also need to alter the facing or collar.

The case of the facing

To modify the facing, I place it on top of the back to transfer the diagonal line. As before, you can either cut your pattern this line or fold your pattern this line.

The case of the collar

Now imagine you have a shirt. Remove the excess "1 cm" starting from the middle of the back. To do this, draw avertical line 1 cmfromthe middle of the back.

If you have a back with a yoke

If you have a yoke at the top of the back, the quickest solution is to make the alteration only on the yoke. To do this, remove the excess fabric at the neckline, then draw a diagonal line that joins the bottom of the pattern piece pattern the center back:

• This modification should only be madeif the excess to be removed is not too significant.Otherwise, you risk distorting your pattern too much pattern this method.
• These tips are by no means exhaustive, as there are countless possible variations in patterns. In any case, I hope this article has given you a good foundation for altering a gaping neckline.

Did you like my tips? Find all my sewing patterns in my store!

Happy sewing, and see you soon!

Cadia