Korra Cosplay: Shirt, part 1

Sewing Korra's shirt is becoming quite the saga.

I knew this would be the most difficult part from the beginning, due to the design of the collar.

The big problem here is that it looks impossible to pull over her head. While making the muslins for this, I discovered that there was no way to get a nice knit fabric over my head while still having it sit tightly against my neck. Using spandex would almost solve the problem, but then you'd need to make sure the collar keeps its shape. That sort of construction is beyond my ability right now. Also, spandex is usually shiny, so would make Korra look like a superhero.

I compromised by cutting a slit into the back of the collar, which will fasten closed with a loop and button. It's not accurate to the design, but come on!

I didn't have much trouble drafting up the pattern for the main part of the top, but the collar boggled me.

Despite the inside-out seams around the armholes, the second muslin I made fit pretty well (except for the collar).

In the end, I decided I would add in a front facing with interfacing to keep the front of the collar rigid. I was over the delusion that I could have it sitting tight against my neck, but as long as it kept the sharp corners I'd be happy.

The back piece cut out

A couple of tests for the collar. I later discarded the back facing - it simply wouldn't stretch over my head

Attaching the facing to the collar

Planning out the bias binding

Finishing the collar with bias binding will also give it some rigidity. The hardest part were the inverted 'V' shapes. This tutorial helped a whole lot - I just had to make sure to space them out right (a ruler helps).

I then used a tailor's ham to steam the collar into submission.

The results thus far:

The cut-out is bigger than I would like, but this shirt sucks my soul away every time I work on it, so I'm not too fussed.

I need to pick up some white knit fabric in a similar colour to the binding (it's slightly off-white), then attach the white trim to the armholes. Then the top is done!

I'm hoping to finish the shirt before the week is out. The next item is her leather wrap. Yikes! Real leather!

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Next post: Korra's shirt, part two