# The neckband is gone and the edge finished itself

> Cutting the ribbed neckband off a sweatshirt changes how it sits more than any other single cut, and the raw jersey rolls into a curl without any hem at all.

August 21, 2026 · https://justog.club/stories/the-collar-cut-out

An oxblood sweatshirt, flat from the front. The ribbed neckband is gone entirely, and the neck
opening left behind is a raw curved edge, rolled and curled softly inward all the way round.
Beside the garment, the removed band lies as a single closed loop.

Nobody hemmed that edge. The fabric did it on its own.

## Why does the neck opening curl instead of fraying?

Because the jersey the body is cut from behaves differently under tension than the ribbing that
used to sit at the edge of it.

Ribbed neckbands are knitted tighter and under stretch, built specifically to hold a shape and
snap back. Cut it away and the plain jersey underneath is left with nothing holding its edge flat
— knit fabric under a cut naturally rolls toward the side that was under more tension, and around
a curved opening like a neckline that roll reads as a soft, even curl rather than a hard raw line.
It looks finished because the material is doing something a hem usually does, without one.

## Why does this one change how the garment sits more than most cuts do?

Because the neckband was the one part of the garment actively holding a shape at rest.

Cuffs and hems are also ribbed, but a neckline is the point closest to the body and the least
forgiving of movement — a neckband set the exact width of the opening and stopped it stretching
wider over a wash cycle or a season of wear. Remove it and that constraint is gone: the opening
sits wherever the curl settles it, which is usually lower and looser than the neckband ever
allowed, and the whole collar area of the garment reads differently on the body as a result.

## What does the removed loop show that the garment doesn't?

That the neckband was the one part of the sweatshirt actually built as a separate piece.

Every other seam on a sweatshirt is fabric meeting fabric along a cut edge. A neckband is knitted
on its own, to its own gauge, then set into the neckline afterward — cut it free and it comes away
whole, still a closed ring, still holding the shape it was knitted to. It's the only offcut in
[a cut like this](/stories/the-sleeves-came-off-first) that was ever a finished object
in its own right before somebody removed it.

## Can this be undone if the fit turns out wrong?

No — the knitted ring that gave the opening its width is gone, and jersey doesn't grow back to
meet it.

That's a fact about the cut, not a warning about it: plenty of people cut the neckband on purpose
knowing exactly how it opens the neckline, and the ones who regret it usually still wear the
sweatshirt anyway, because a jersey curl at the neck settles further and softens with every wash
rather than getting worse.

## Does the print need to move because of the cut?

No, but it reads differently once the collar sits lower.

A chest graphic that used to sit under a snug neckband now has more open jersey above it, and a
design centred to the old collar line can look slightly low on the new one. Nothing about the
print itself needs to change — flat colour and a hard edge hold on jersey exactly as they did
before the cut — it's worth centring the design to where the neckline actually falls now rather
than where it used to.

## Can I put a licensed graphic on a sweatshirt cut this way?

Yes — the cut and the print are two separate questions, and the print is licensable the normal
way.

A studio or a maker can grant permission for their artwork the same way they would for any
garment. What the neckband cut does to the collar has no bearing on who owns what's printed on
the chest.

## Does this connect to other alterations, or does it usually stand alone?

It's frequently one of several — a sweatshirt that's had its neckband cut is a common candidate
for [a hem taken up by hand further down the same garment](/stories/the-hem-taken-up-by-hand),
and a body that's [shrunk with wear](/stories/the-shrunk-one-you-still-wear) often ends
up with its neckband cut precisely because the shrunk collar had stopped fitting over the head.

## How do I get one made?

Describe the sweatshirt at [JustOG](/) — the print, the garment colour, and that the neckline
should read as a raw curled edge rather than a ribbed collar. Pick a direction, drag the crop
frame, see it composited on the real garment, and it's made to order and shipped.

Designs other people have published are in the [shop](/shop).

The loop sits next to the garment because it used to be part of it.