Darling Double Peter Pan Collar: a how to

It's Day 1 of Kids Clothes Week! Are you playing along by sewing for an hour a day for your child? I have several projects I'd like to do...we'll just have to see how much I can actually get done! (I'm in the middle of Christmas projects, making curtains, and designing patterns, all of which are distracting me!)

I'm excited to share my fall version of Debbie's Birthday Dress by Sew Pony Vintage. The pattern is on sale for only $5 right now and it's a definite 'must-have' pattern! It went together so quickly, was super easy to sew, and is darling!!

I sewed the dress up a week or so ago but had to finish it up today and take pictures of it. If you follow me on Instagram you saw a sneak peek of this dress before it was finished.

I fell in love with this orange linen fabric and the lining fabric is to-die-for! (I made another project out of it yesterday that I'm dying to show you!!) I also chose TWO different colors of linen because I wanted to try a double peter pan collar. It was easy-peasy. Here's how to do it:

1. Cut out your collar pattern piece and place it on a plain sheet of paper.
2. Using a seam gauge or ruler, measure out how much bigger you want the second collar to be and make marks all the way around your pattern piece. (I made mine 3/4" bigger all the way around.)

3. Connect your marks all the way around and you now have a new pattern piece to use for cutting your fabric.
4. Follow the pattern instructions to sew your collar, you'll just have two that will be together as you sew.
Here's a little tip: I would recommend using a lighter weight interfacing if you are doing a double collar so it's not quite so thick. I used mid-weight interfacing (yep...I was lazy and didn't want to go to the store to get lightweight so I used what I had on hand) and the collar sticks out a bit more than I'd like it to. When pressed well it's not a big deal, but lightweight would be a better choice for this double collar.

When I first put the dress on my daughter, Isa, I didn't love it because it SCREAMED Thanksgiving to me! A pilgrim-ish dress is not what I was going for! So I asked Isa to model it for the rest of the family to see what they thought. They all thought the same thing. I almost cut it apart and reworked it...but then I remembered this cream sweater in the girls' closet from last year and knew it would be the perfect complement to the dress.

The orange is still very reminiscent of Thanksgiving...but that's ok in fall, right? Plus, it gave me a chance to let her show off a free pattern I'll be sharing in a week or two for this felt turkey. Bring on Thanksgiving!