To draft the raised neckline, begin with the center back pattern piece.

Extend the center back line up 2″.

Square a line over to the shoulder from the center back line. From the edge of the pattern at the shoulder, blend a softly curved line to meet the new raised  neckline seam.

Many of us have a curve in the upper portion of our backs, so I suggest that you add seam allowance to the center back seam. The center back pattern piece for Butterick 5678 is cut on the fold, so just add the seam allowance. This will aid greatly in fitting.

Now take the center front pattern piece. I eliminated the button extension from the pattern for drafting.

Take the back pattern with the raised neckline and trace the curved shoulder line on to the front so that both will match.

You can see in the picture below that I have laid the back over the front showing you that both shoulders are the same.

Now draw in your desired shape for the front neckline. The portion of the collar that angles off the shoulder line is 3″ long. Then I determined how low I would like my neckline to be and I drew in a curved neckline.

Add the button extension to the center front as well as seam allowance. Here is the formula for determining how wide the button extension should be, 1/2 the size of the button plus 1/4″. So, if you have a 1/2″ button, half the size of the button would be 1/4″. Add 1/4″ to this measurement and it will be a 1/2″ button extension. This just happens to work out for a 1/2″ button. Note that for a 1″ button the extension would be 3/4″.

The front facing for this neckline will be the same as the center front pattern piece, so you will cut 2 for the front and 2 for the facings, 4 in total.

To develop the facing for the back, measure down 5″ from the top of the neckline and angle a line over to the side seam as you see in the above picture. Below you see the final patterns for the back, front and the new back neck facing.

For my blouse, I once again took off the shirttail from the original pattern and finished off the hem edge with a bias trim.

As I said, this is a very pretty neckline detail which will look good on almost anyone. I hope you’ll give it a try. Just remember that you may have to do a little fitting to get the neckline to lay as mine does. Use the shoulder seams as well as the center back seam to achieve a flawless neckline!!!