t-shirt problems

[erratica.livejournal.com]

I cut the collar off of all my t-shirts since I can't stand things rubbing my neck. I just take a seam ripper to them and separate the ribbed fabric from the shirt itself. Works great, but leaves a *huge* hole! Who knew they gathered the fabric so much around the collar? Some of them are so wide that they're nearly off the shoulder. That isn't a look I'm going for.

The shirts I've done this to all have designs that are pretty near the collar so I can't just nip some fabric in the center and secure it. Does anyone have any ideas on how to take care of this problem? I have a sewing machine that I'm quite a novice with, and can hand sew in my own odd fashion.