How to Fill in a Low-Cut Neckline

Let me take you step by step through designing and sewing a tidy little infill for a too-low V-shaped neckline. You do a little fiddling with the paper up front, but the end piece will fit very nicely.

1. Put the dress on, and slip a piece of paper into the neckline V so that it sits in the way that pleases you. Trace the V with a pencil. Don't worry about getting it exactly right.



2. Cut out the triangle that you just drew. Now fold it vertically so you can check it for symmetry. It's probably not symmetrical, so now place it with the larger side on top in the square corner of a fresh piece of paper. You want the top line to be nice and horizontal so that your infill doesn't have a strange dip or hump across the top. Trace the diagonal line onto your new piece of paper.



3. Add an allowance to your triangle by drawing another line two inches away (mine's dotted). It's not necessary to extend the bottom point so far though, so crop it off leaving about a two inch allowance below the bottom point. This wide margin will make it easy to attach the infill to your dress.



4. Cut around your new, larger pattern piece. Now lay it out on a folded piece of paper, with the long vertical side on the fold, and cut it out so that you have a full-size trapezoid piece. Label it as you see below, with the grain line on the paper fold, and a "place on fold" mark on the longer horizontal side of the trapezoid. It will be the top edge of your infill.





5. Cut it out in your fabric, following the directions on the pattern piece. You'll need to fold your fabric on the crosswise grain to do this.

6. Now fold your odd shape of fabric, wrong sides together, through the middle, so that you have the trapezoid you desired, with a beautiful folded edge at the top. Press it neatly and pin the raw edges together. Sew the three sides with their raw edges, then finish them with a zigzag or overcast stitch. Advanced seamstresses might want to sew with right sides together, leaving an opening for turning the shape, then turing it right side out and slipstitching closed. But it's not necessary.



7. Your infill piece is finished now. Put the dress on, and pin the piece in place. Remove the dress, and either slipstich the piece to your garment (this is so much easier to do if your dress is lined!) or you can even carefully safety-pin it in place with tiny pins (for this you MUST have a lined dress). The idea is to catch inner layers of the dress with your stitches or pins, so that nothing shows on the outside.





8. All done!