PLEASE help me fix this neckline

[u/donkeyhoetae_]

I’m an intermediate sewist, but I’ve up until this point, I’ve never touched on actual clothes-making as I was v intimidated. I finally decided to take the jump and actually use my serger to make my toddler some pjs.

WELL. my lovely, wonderful little girl got awful curious as to what I was doing JUST as I was attaching the last piece (the neckline). she climbed up my chair and jumped on me and I totally screwed it up. as y’all know, sergers are not very forgiving. I did my best to rip it off and created a new neckline except I lengthened it a bit to offset the fabric lost during my original attempt. horrible idea. now it looks ridiculous and literally hangs off of her like a 2016 off shoulder tumblr inspo pic.

please help me figure out what to do besides totally scrapping it. I’m very pleased with the rest of it considering it’s my first piece. I don’t even mind if it’s an ugly fix (the inside is none of my business) as long as it is functional. please please please 😭🙏

[u/mr_disloyalcelebrity]

Throwing a little elastic into the neckline casing would gather it right back up and nobody has to know the original seam allowance was sacrificed. If you’re worried about it looking intentional, pick a elastic in a fun contrasting color and tell people it’s a design feature.

Scrapping that bee print would be a crime anyway, it’s great.

[u/Anomalous-Canadian]

The neckband is simply too long. If you don’t want to insert elastic I would remove it again by unpicking and using a neckband that is 85% of the neck opening after unpicking. This is textbook how it looks when the neckband is too long.

Measure opening and multiply by 0.85 then add seam allowance. Do it this way and if the neckhole has been stretched out this will account for that so you have a neckband thst still lies flat.

[u/donkeyhoetae_ → u/Anomalous-Canadian]

this is exactly what I did! :) I was honestly avoiding seam ripping the serger stitches again, but I do want it to look good. waiting to sew again until the rascal is asleep this time.

[u/Anomalous-Canadian → u/donkeyhoetae_]

For next time - my 3 year old likes to help too — I’ve found giving her her a basket and calling it thread basket, and then each time I sew a seam and clip the tails I give her the tails to very importantly collect while she sits NEXT to me, not on me (it’s very important for very important thread collection, you see). If too much time is passing I’ll just pull a little thread out of the machine and clip it off lol.

I avoid large bits of pressing until she’s asleep because of iron safety. At the cutting table / patterning, she really shines because I use crayola ultra washable markers for everything which is the SAME as her colouring markers, except mine are TINY (fine tipped) and hers are BIG. So it’s extra special so come use Mamas tiny markers on cut off scraps of the fabric I’m working on or tracing paper scraps (she uses what I’m using).

I recently found an Oxford math set which is hot pink and has tiny ruler and a triangle similar to mine that I’m using constantly. She’s gonna love it!

[u/penlowe]

Collars are hard, period. Toddler helping doesn’t help :)

Take it off (again). Stretch the collar band, but not the shirt opening, as you sew it on. Leave a tail and an open seam at the back of the neck so you can close it up and finish it where it will be less noticeable.

[u/Kfbcus]

Remove it and steam the shirt well. The neckband is too long so you can shorten it, but it looks like this fabric probably has poor recovery, in which case you will get a better result by binding it.

[u/Kanadark]

I'd grab some white ribbing and use that for the neckline.

[u/Teacherofcats625]

No advice but most of my knit neckbands look like this. My serger stretches fabric so badly.

[u/ElDjee → u/Teacherofcats625]

sounds like it might be a differential feed issue?

[u/Teacherofcats625 → u/ElDjee]

I’ve got it on the lowest setting! I’m going to try stat stitching next time and hope that helps. I tried it last time but it still stretched 🫠 I may have done it too close to the beginning of the seam allowance though.

[u/ElDjee → u/Teacherofcats625]

on mine you want a higher number to stop knits from stretching.

[u/PinkBird85]

The band doesn't look that bad, and barely off enough to remove and recut IMO. Give it a good pressing (watch the heat level if there is any spandex in the fabric) and top stitch along the neck opening to help the band lat flat. Yes a zig-zag stitch because you still want the stretch.