Halcyon Scrap Dog Collar Build
Thanks to Kat and the production managers at Tom Bihn for sending this long scrap of Halcyon to me! They gave me a long strip about 2 inches wide, out of which I made an ultralight dog collar 20mm/0.75in wide. (This is not a dog collar made by Tom Bihn.)
Keep in mind that I don't know how to sew beyond making minor repairs to clothing and have never sewn Halcyon before. I did make a mistake and should have used a standard seam instead of sewing the selvedge twice.
Halcyon turned out to be a lot more rigid than I expected. Cutting it was difficult and ironing it flat was practically impossible at low temperatures. (I didn't want to use higher temps because I don't know if the fabric will melt.) I cut a 17in long strip for a small to medium size adjustable collar.
I didn't want to crease the fabric yet, so I used blue painters tape to try to make the edges match up perfectly and left the tube open.
Next, I put needles through the middle so that I could remove the tape and sew the tube shut where the tape is. The white gridlines make it pretty easy to visually see whether things are aligned properly. I'm trying to fold the tube along one white grid line without creasing it too hard.
I removed the blue tape. The strip curves in a arc due to the needles scrunching up the fabric. I'll have to hold it very flat as it is being sewn. The 20mm line will go roughly halfway between two grid lines.
After sewing the first seam, I removed the pins so that the tube could lay flat, then sewed a second line as a kind of selvedge. It would have been better to have sewn just a plain seam and then split the two down the middle.
Then I sewed off one end.
I inserted a BBQ skewer through the tube and sewed the closed end to the loop in the skewer. This makes it easier to turn the tube inside out. It was a bit hard to start but once started it was super easy.
In the pic above, there is a skewer inside the tube, and the needle with the green thread is poked through the O-shaped head of the skewer. Shown next to the tube is a second skewer for reference.
Pulling on the skewer helps to start the tube turning inside out. After it starts, a chopstick helps to push it along the inside.
This next pic is about halfway through. The skewer has come out the open end, but the chopstick is still inside, helping flip the tube inside out.
When done, the tube is now round like a straw. I cut open the end that was sewn shut and that also has the skewer attached.
Lining up the seam at the center of the tube, I put needles through the center in preparation for sewing the edges flat. I followed one of the white grid lines again, using it as the edge.
Then I sewed the other edge, which flattens the tube as flat as it will go.
It's ready now to be sewn to the hardware. I thought about cutting apart the old collar to transfer its hardware over, but the tri-glide is the wide-mouth type due to the thickness of the cloth, and because Halcyon is so thin, I'll need a standard tri-glide with the wide center bar. So I ended up ordering all new hardware including a curved Wienerlock buckle designed for dog collars, a stainless steel D-ring, and the standard-size Duralex tri-glide.
The rest is pretty straightforward. I just copied the layout of the old collar. Here's the final completed collar.
Hopefully this helps those of you considering making a dog collar out of Halcyon yourself. The hardest part was turning the tube inside out, so I provided the most photos of that step.
Thanks to Kat and the production managers at Tom Bihn for sending this long scrap of Halcyon to me! They gave me a long strip about 2 inches wide, out of which I made an ultralight dog collar 20mm/0.75in wide. (This is not a dog collar made by Tom Bihn.)
Keep in mind that I don't know how to sew beyond making minor repairs to clothing and have never sewn Halcyon before. I did make a mistake and should have used a standard seam instead of sewing the selvedge twice.
Halcyon turned out to be a lot more rigid than I expected. Cutting it was difficult and ironing it flat was practically impossible at low temperatures. (I didn't want to use higher temps because I don't know if the fabric will melt.) I cut a 17in long strip for a small to medium size adjustable collar.
I didn't want to crease the fabric yet, so I used blue painters tape to try to make the edges match up perfectly and left the tube open.
Next, I put needles through the middle so that I could remove the tape and sew the tube shut where the tape is. The white gridlines make it pretty easy to visually see whether things are aligned properly. I'm trying to fold the tube along one white grid line without creasing it too hard.
I removed the blue tape. The strip curves in a arc due to the needles scrunching up the fabric. I'll have to hold it very flat as it is being sewn. The 20mm line will go roughly halfway between two grid lines.
After sewing the first seam, I removed the pins so that the tube could lay flat, then sewed a second line as a kind of selvedge. It would have been better to have sewn just a plain seam and then split the two down the middle.
Then I sewed off one end.
I inserted a BBQ skewer through the tube and sewed the closed end to the loop in the skewer. This makes it easier to turn the tube inside out. It was a bit hard to start but once started it was super easy.
In the pic above, there is a skewer inside the tube, and the needle with the green thread is poked through the O-shaped head of the skewer. Shown next to the tube is a second skewer for reference.
Pulling on the skewer helps to start the tube turning inside out. After it starts, a chopstick helps to push it along the inside.
This next pic is about halfway through. The skewer has come out the open end, but the chopstick is still inside, helping flip the tube inside out.
When done, the tube is now round like a straw. I cut open the end that was sewn shut and that also has the skewer attached.
Lining up the seam at the center of the tube, I put needles through the center in preparation for sewing the edges flat. I followed one of the white grid lines again, using it as the edge.
Then I sewed the other edge, which flattens the tube as flat as it will go.
It's ready now to be sewn to the hardware. I thought about cutting apart the old collar to transfer its hardware over, but the tri-glide is the wide-mouth type due to the thickness of the cloth, and because Halcyon is so thin, I'll need a standard tri-glide with the wide center bar. So I ended up ordering all new hardware including a curved Wienerlock buckle designed for dog collars, a stainless steel D-ring, and the standard-size Duralex tri-glide.
The rest is pretty straightforward. I just copied the layout of the old collar. Here's the final completed collar.
Hopefully this helps those of you considering making a dog collar out of Halcyon yourself. The hardest part was turning the tube inside out, so I provided the most photos of that step.
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