chipao trimmmm
I had prepped all this black trim to go on the chipao (and had attached some of it to the collar) when I had second thoughts ... but with the magic of photoshop, I could put them to rest!
I was originally planning on doing the top right version, and I'll be sticking with it. It looks a lot more vintage-y with the black trim than I'd thought.
chipao progress
So I ended up asking my seamstress about the collar thing, and she said that for a chipao, the collar needs to be really curved to fit nicely. For a taller collar, it needs to be curved even more. The pattern at the top is what I ended up with when I tried draping it freehand. You can see that I
- made the neckline smaller (collar is shorter)
- start curve a bit at the back, and much more at the front
- sloped the front center a lot more than just rounding off the corner (important! or else the collar will overlap funny at the front)
And, this past weekend, I've been sewing up a storm.
Here are the outside pieces, not really sewn together yet, and I am in the middle of cutting out the lining and facings.