... empty bag and a piece of cloth on the neck (5)
I believe the answer is:
scrag
'the neck' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'empty bag and a piece of cloth' is the wordplay.
'empty' means to remove the middle letters.
'bag' becomes 'sac' (a small bag).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'a piece of cloth' becomes 'rag' (rag is a kind of piece of cloth).
'sac' with its middle removed is 'sc'.
'sc'+'rag'='SCRAG'
'on' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for scrag that I've seen before include "The inferior end of a neck of mutton" , "Poor quality meat - throttle" , "Bony part of the neck" , "Lean end of mutton neck" , "Collar" .)