Recently I brought some of the lovely warm soft Waffle Rib Cotton knit from OTY Fabrics NZ to sew my son a warm PJ top. The fabric was everything I hoped it would be, warm, soft and easy to sew with. As always OTY Fabrics has some of the best fabric I have brought (I maybe biased). When I started to sew the top I had already brought some wooden buttons from OTY Fabrics as well and thought how can I make a Henley quickly just so I can get this top made between orders? Cue using the Faux Placket I have seen a few examples of in other patterns and in a few free tutorials online. Here is my version of the Faux Henley Placket using scraps of plain Cotton Knit and the wooden buttons from OTY. If you have a basic top you feel needs this classic update too then please feel free to use this tutorial to make your own version.
What you'll need:
A basic top, dress or bodysuit pattern precut out and ready to sew up. (this is up to you, but I recommend only using a crew neckline for this)
a piece of cotton knit (it doesn't need stretch so you could also use a woven)
thread
scissors
standard sewing machine
buttons of your choice (I got my wooden ones from OTY Fabrics)
How to do it:
Cut your piece of cotton knit approximately 16cm long by 7cm wide (this worked well for my size 14 years top, I would make it 5cm wide by around 15cm long for sizes below 10 years)
With right side facing fold long edges into centre on both sides of the strip and iron flat. Fold up one short end towards the folded edges and iron flat.
Grab the precut piece of your top front and fold in half to show the centre, iron the folded edge to mark the centre front.
With the tucked edges facing towards the right side of the top centre the ironed fabric strip over the ironed centre front of your top. Pin in place making sure the raw top edge (non folded end) is meeting the neckine of your cut front top piece.
Sew around all edges of the fabric strip to attach it to your top front. I chose to sew close to the edges and also sew a small X at the folded end, you can do this too if you would like.
Lay out your buttons making sure to keep the top button away from your neckine otherwise the button will get caught up as you sew the neckband on. Attach buttons in whichever way you would like, hand sew or using your sewing machine.
And you are done! One simple Faux Henley Placket completed. Now continue to sew your top as normal catching raw end of your Faux Placket as you stitch on your band or bind the neckline.
Don't forget to tag me on Instagram or Facebook if you use this tutorial I would love to see what you make! My tag is #picklefishproductsnz
Thanks
Vivien