Drafting a Cowl Neckline for Knits

This lesson will teach you how to draft a cowl neck knit top. Taking the desired knit fabric choice into consideration, you will learn how to determine the height of the cowl and then how to draft this type of neckline.

The sleeveless knit T-shirt sloper needed for this lesson can be found and drafted in our lesson: Drafting a Women’s Fitted Stable Knit T-Shirt from Measurements. And the fabric planned for this draft is a cotton/Lycra single knit jersey.

For more lessons on working with cut & sew knits visit our Knit Discipline landing page.

Table of Contents
Transcript

Module	Description	Step
1	Drafting the Cowl Neck Body	1-2
2	Drafting the Cowl & Final Steps	1-2
3	More About Knits	1-2

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MODULE 1 • Drafting the Cowl Neck Body

Step	Description
1	Referring to our cowl neck sketch, we determine the height of the cowl. For this lesson we will plan for a 12” high (30.5cm) single-layer cowl, finished with a coverstitch hem. If you choose a cowl that is doubled, then you may want to reduce the height of the cowl to reduce bulk.
2	Trace-off the front and back women’s sleeveless knit T-shirt sloper onto a piece of pattern paper. Start by opening the neckline at the front and back shoulder by ½” (1.3cm). Then, drop the neckline at center front 1 ¼” (3.2cm) and blend the new neckline to the shoulder. Measure the new front and back neckline and record those measurements. Our front measures 5 ¼” (13.3cm) and the back neckline measures 3 ¼” (8.3cm).

Step

Description

Referring to our cowl neck sketch, we determine the height of the cowl. For this lesson we will plan for a 12” high (30.5cm) single-layer cowl, finished with a coverstitch hem.

If you choose a cowl that is doubled, then you may want to reduce the height of the cowl to reduce bulk.

Trace-off the front and back women’s sleeveless knit T-shirt sloper onto a piece of pattern paper. Start by opening the neckline at the front and back shoulder by ½” (1.3cm).

Then, drop the neckline at center front 1 ¼” (3.2cm) and blend the new neckline to the shoulder.

Measure the new front and back neckline and record those measurements. Our front measures 5 ¼” (13.3cm) and the back neckline measures 3 ¼” (8.3cm).

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