tutorial: a wee tie

Benny loves wearing ties. I started making them for him last summer (blog post here) and I promised then that I would make a tutorial.

I made Benny 2 new ties for his birthday tomorrow and took picture of the process, so here is the promised tutorial :-)

First make your template. If you have a tie at home, just draw around this. If it is a small child's tie then give yourself a 1/2 inch all around it for seam allowance and if it is an adult tie, just draw around it. 

 If you don't have a tie to draw around you can draw one out for yourself.
Draw a line 3 inches across. In the center of this line measure down 1.5 inches. Draw a straight line from the centre point to each edge. At the edge points measure 13 inches along, tapered in slightly so that you have a tie shape, like in the picture above.

 Cut around your tie. Double your fabric over right side in and then pin your template onto the wrong side of your fabric. draw and cut around this.

 remove template but leave pins in place

 starting at the top sew all the way around the outside of the tie (still on the wrong side)

 clip the edges

turn the tie right side out. I use a knitting needle to make sure that all of the edges are pushed out then iron to get the lovely pointed edges.

 about 4 inches down from the top, fold the tie fabric behind the tie like this.

 then fold the rest of that across the front of the tie leaving enough to tuck behind to make a neat pretend knot.

 before you sew up the back, you need about 14 inches of elastic. Insert one end of elastic about 1/2 inch into the tie and making sure the elastic is not twisted place the other end of the elastic into the other side of the tie. Pin into place

 Stitch along the top of the tie, firmly stitching the elastic into place,

 then stitch down all of the fabric folds.
And that's it, a wee boy's tie.

Happy sewing :-)