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Stiff Collars
How are Stiff shirt collars made
Shirt Users,
Stiff shirt collar look freshly pressed.
Starch is not the only thing that makes collars and cuffs stand out.
Next time your at your local JC Penney, Walmart,Sears and many others, look closely at the collars and cuffs. Most of them appear wrinkled very soft, this may be alright for casual wear but for dress shirts its a no no.
Interfacing is the fabric that goes inside the collar or cuff. It can be made from cotton or one of the many polyester types or combinations thereof. It can be fusible which means it has glue on one side or it can be non-fusible meaning no glue.
Fabrics can be Sanfordized and Mercerized so they're pre-shrunk and hold their luster longer.
Sanforization is the shrinking of fabric while it is still fabric not a garment.They say this process keeps shrinkage down to 1%. I personally don't believe anything is 100% so we like to wash the fabric and also shrink it to make sure it shrinks as little as possible.You might want to check the shirtmaking videos to see a demo of shrinking. We also shrink the interfacing in water before cutting. Its important to have the two shrunk.
We get to the point where all the pieces have been shrunk and we then cut and fuse. 99.9% of the collars and cuffs are fused because men like the smooth and hard finish of a stiff appearance they give.
The stiffness can be controlled by layering one interfacing on top of another. The final factor is the actual thickness of the individual interfacings.
Please watch the video on stiff collars to get a general Idea of how its done.
stiffCollar.html
Hope the information is usefull
Best wishes,
Mike Maldonado
Custom Collar and Cuff Maker
© Maldonado Custom Shirts 2008 Toll Free 1-888-467-4478 email:shirtman60@collarreplacement.com
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