It is often necessary to provide a slit in a piece of fabric to allow for a stay or a flagpole or a stanchion or something similar. There must be a slit to allow the cover to extend around and beyond the object but that slit will allow water and sunlight to enter unless it is closed. One good way to close such openings is with a “collar closure.”

To fashion a collar closure, attach to rectangles of cloth the length of the slit and three inches or so wide to both sides of the opening. These cloth “collars” have Velcro sewn to their inside surfaces near their “top” edge so they can be pressed together around the object such that they stand upright on the surface of the cover and thus tend to make any leakage minimal.

To make a collar closure, attach Velcro hook and loop strips to the rectangles. Put ½ inch hems on all four sides of the rectangles and attach the Velcro on the hemmed side of each one. Then lay the rectangles Velcro side up so their “bottom” edges are flush with the slit edge on both sides. Run a row of straight stitches about ½ inch inside those flush edges. Now the Velcro can be pressed together to close the slit with a standing ridge or “collar”.

By the way, the beginning point of the slit is a weak area that should be reinforced. Two or three ounce leather can be formed nicely to make a binding round this sharp corner. It can be sewn in place by hand or with a sewing machine. The leather provides adequate reinforcement and also very good chafe resistance. If leather is not handy, a small rectangle of fabric can be used also even though chafe resistance will not be as good. In either case simply fold the reinforcement (about 1 inch or so wide) over the raw fabric slit edges starting an inch or so on the collar rectangle, moving round the “V” of the slit and then along the other side and onto the other rectangle about the same amount.

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