Tutorial- Angled Ruche Cowl Collar Tunic

This tunic is the latest in the "OMG Pam is Sewing For Herself !" series of garments ;)  It is an original hand-drafted design of mine, and features a classic cowl collar that has been diagonally ruched. 

Here is a close-up of the finished collar...

^ Click to enlarge ^

Even though I drafted the pattern for my tunic, it is very easy to do with any pattern that has an applied cowl collar, like this style from Vogue, #8670.  

From cutting out the pattern pieces to wearing my top out to dinner...took less than 1.5 hours!   I enjoy "almost instant" sewing-gratification, don't you?

Here is how the Angled Ruche Cowl Collar is made...

First, stitch the long seam of the cowl collar. It will look similar to this--

For my tunic, I made the cowl collar "tube" using these measurements:
(20" long) x (the circumference of the neck edge + seam allowance).

< Click to enlarge


 

Next the collar was turned  WRONG sides together, hiding the seam allowances inside. Note--the seam is the CB of the cowl collar. 

Then a diagonal line was chalked across the Front of the collar at a random angle--

^ Click to enlarge ^

Following the chalked line, loose running stitches (using black thread) were worked through only the front layers of the collar. The stitches are about 1/2" long, and the line of stitching was anchored (knotted) at the bottom edge--

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Next, the thread tail at the top of the collar was pulled to make the ruche, as shown below. Then several small stitches were taken and a small knot was made to secure the gathered (ruched) collar--

^ Click to enlarge ^

To attach the collar to the bodice, both the ruched cowl collar and the neck-edge of the bodice were marked at their 4 "quarter points" with pins--

^ Click to enlarge ^

The "Angled Ruche" cowl collar was attached to the neck-edge by matching the quarter-mark points (right side of collar to right side of bodice), then aligning all the edges as they were stitched together.       

All that was left to finish my "Angled Ruche Cowl" was setting the sleeves and stitching the hems :)

I will probably make another of this style soon,  perhaps positioning the ruche to the side (near the shoulder seam point) of the neckline...or maybe running 2 lines of ruching vertically at Center Front...or 2 lines in a \ / shape...or....  Well, the possibilities are endless!