Theming the field.tpl.php - accessing variables from a field collection
In standard field.tpl files you can access your field collection items using this code:

foreach ($items as $k) {
  foreach ($k['entity']['field_collection_item'] as $id =&gt; $field_collection) {
    $field_collection_item = field_collection_item_load($id);
    $field_wrapper = entity_metadata_wrapper('field_collection_item', $field_collection_item);
    $field_colour = $field_wrapper-&gt;field_colour-&gt;value();
  }
}


I don't know if it is a best practice to do that, but this is my way.