Tutorial: Patterning Necks

I Pattern my Neck each time I make a suit!
So a lot of people ask me "Glitzy can I have your neck pattern"? To which my response is I DONT HAVE ONE. I pattern it out every single time because I think it fits my suit style more. If you are working with a bigger and toonier head, you can definitely use this tutorial and then save and re-use your pattern. But for a zip up form fitting neck, this is the best way in my opinion!  

Step One: Acquire a good mannaquin head /armature.  I recommend using a male with a larger head size. You can snag the one I use for a good price here. You want the Ed Head, Not the Alanna head unless you have an insanely tiny head.   

Step Two: Finish your Headbase and put it on the Mannaquin.

Step Three: Get Aluminum Foil and wrap it around the neck of the mannaquin.
You can add or subtract depending on what kind of fit you want. I like my necks to be tighter on my personal suits. If you are not attaching a zipper you are goint to want to double whats shown here. 

Step Four: Fashion the aluminum foil into a bib like so. 

Step Five: Tape the foil sown so it doesnt move.
The end of the tape should be where you want the neck to end. Put a straight line of tape down the back to hold that in place too!

Step 6: Tape the whole neck and head.

Tape tightly. I only tape half of the head and neck because I just flip the pattern later. 

Step 7: Begin Pattern.
Start by drawing a midline on the front and also the back of the neck in the center of the chest and the center of the back. I would write "flip" here to remind yourself that the piece will be flipped later. 

Step 8: Draw the shape of the front piece.
You can see how Ive done mine below. 

Step 9: Draw another divider separating the back piece from the middle piece.

If the head youre working with is very large, or you dont care much about a particular shape, you can stop here and pattern these 3 pieces. This would not work on my suits and I recommend taking the extra time to split the neck into 6 pieces instead of 3.

Step 10: Draw a horizontal line along the place with the most curve. . This will get the curve of the neck and make it so you dont have to deal with any silly darts.

Step 11: Draw the direction the fur should be moving down the neck. 

 Step 12: Finish by drawing any markings that will help you in the fur cutting process. Here is what I do!

Then all you have to do is cut those pieces off of the mannaquin, flatten them (getting them as flat as possible is fine, you dont need to go crazy adding darts) and trace them onto fur! Make sure to remember to filp pieces 1 and 2!

I hope this helps you guys, please let me know if you have any questions!!!