Reshaping the Ember Neckline

I love a spacious V-neck, and the Ember Dress is no exception! I did have a place to go where I needed a bit more neckline coverage, so I made a few really small but mighty adjustments to the neckline.

In case you also were thinking about reshaping the neckline, I’ll share my steps. You don’t have to stick with a V neck to follow this tutorial, but you DO have to make sure that your final neck circumference is larger than your head circumference! Including ears! It would be really sad if you adjust your neckline and can’t pull it on. 

How to Reshape the Neckline

1. Tape the Front, Back, Front Facing, and Back Facing to some extra paper and extend the piece edges: the center front, center back, and shoulder seams. You can see them in green in Fig 1.

2. Tape the shoulder seams (so, draw in the stitching lines and match them up as if the shoulder seams were sewn) of the Front and Back. You can leave the facings alone for now.

With the seams taped, mark in the pattern changes. I marked in the seam line along the neck (in pink), then measured ⅜” (1 cm) in at the high point shoulder, blending to no change at the back neck, and I raised the front neck 1”, blending to the change at the shoulder. See Fig 2.

3. Release the tape and cut out the pattern pieces that have been adjusted, then lay them on top of their facing buddies. Copy the changes from the Front Neckline to the Front Facing neckline, and from the Back to the Back Facing. 

In Fig 3, you can see the final pieces. You may notice that I did not re-shape the width of the Facings to be even like the original facings. While that would be an excellent final step, I was a little hesitant to trim because I wanted to try on the bodice before committing to the final neckline shape. I still sewed the topstitch evenly, I just have a little extra around the facing on the CF bodice, and I’m okay with that. 

4. Optional final step (not shown) Measure the facing width 1 ½” (3.81 cm) from the new sewing line and draw in the new facing cut lines. Cut out the pieces. 

Pretty simple, but impactful! 

Happy sewing!