Molly's Sketchbook: Little Boy's Tie
This little boy's Easter tie is quick but very well made and will brighten any Easter outfit. The tie is sewn almost entirely by hand, so if you don't have a machine its easy to finish without one.
Materials
- 3/4-yard Liberty of London Tana Lawn in Blue Cars
- 1/4-yard Moda Muslin in White
- 1/4-yard Sew in Stabilizer
- 1 spool of 100% cotton thread in a color that compliments your fabric
- Hand sewing needle
- Print, cut and tape together Little Boy's Tie Templates, available here
Cut Front and Back Tie
Cut the 27-inch x 54-inch piece of Tana Lawn in half length-wise to create two 27-inch squares.
Take one of these squares and fold it in half diagonally as shown above and press it. This diagonal line is the bias fold.
Place your Front Tie template piece along the diagonal fold where indicated on the template and pin. Make sure that the fabric print is oriented in the correct way, it is hard to tell from this picture but the cars are right side up.
Cut out the Front Tie piece.
Cut Front Tie Lining and Back Tie Lining
Using the second 27-inch Tana Lawn square cut out the Back Tie in the same manner as above, along the bias fold.
Cut a 9-inch square of Muslin, fold it in half diagonally and press it. Place both the Front Tie Lining and the Back Tie Lining templates on the muslin, being sure to place the correct edge of the template along the fold as indicated on the template.
Cut Front Tie Interfacing and Back Tie Interfacing
From the Sew in Stabilizer interfacing, cut the Front Tie Interface and the Back Tie Interface pieces. Because the stabilizer is not woven you don't need to worry about cutting it on the bias.
Prepare to Sew Tie
Open up your pieces, you will have:
- 1 Front Tie Piece
- 1 Back Tie Piece
- 1 Front Tie Lining
- 1 Back Tie Lining
- 1 Front Tie Interfacing
- 1 Back Tie Interfacing
Do not iron these pieces flat. You will need their middle markings for reference later.
Front and Back Lining
From the Front Tie Lining, fold the bottom tip up 1/4-inch and press it.
Fold the bottom sides of the lining in 1/4-inch each and press them into place. This will form a neat point at the bottom angle of the lining.
Repeat this step for the Back Lining.
Fold the bottom edges of the Front tie in 1/4 and press them into place.
Fold the tip up 1/4-inch press it, and then fold in the sides to a neat point and press it again, as you did above with the lining pieces.
Repeat this step for the Back Tie.
Place the Front Lining on top of the Front Tie end, wrong sides together. Make sure that the lining is contained within the borders of the end of the tie as shown above. It should be a little bit smaller than the tie end.
Pin the Lining in place
Sew the folded edges of the lining onto the tie end with a slip stitch. Sew only through the folded layer of the Tana Lawn- Do not sew though to the front of the tie. This is very similar to sewing on the binding of a quilt.
Please click here if you need a more in depth explanation of slip stitch.
It's not necessary to sew the top of the lining, it will get enclosed within in the shaping of the tie.
Repeat the same steps to sew on the Back Lining.
Sew the Halves Together
Place the square end of the Back Tie piece on top of and perpendicular to the square end of the Front Tie piece, right sides together, to form a right angle as shown above. Do the same for the interfacing pieces. Draw a diagonal line from right to left across this intersection, as pictured above in yellow. This will be your seam line.
Sew the fronts and backs together along the seam line.
Trim off the excess fabric to 1/4-inch.
Press the seam open. It will be practically invisible on the right side since the print has so much going on!
Shaping the Tie
Fold in edges of the long sides 1/4-inch and press into place.
Fold again 1/4-inch and press.
Fold both edges in so they meet at the crease in the center of the tie and press.
Open up the sides and slip your interfacing in as pictured above. It should fit snugly inside the tie.
Now it's time to close up the tie. Refold the edges, press them again and pin into place.
Sew Tie
The inside seam of your tie will be sewn by hand.
Please Note: I used red thread for the following steps, but only so the technique would be more visible. At home you should use thread that matches your fabric.
Tack the point where the two edges meet a few times before you start your seam.
The tie is sewn up with a different type of slip stitch than was used for sewing the lining:
- Start from the tack run your needle through the fold on the left side and come out about 1/2-inch above.
- Insert your needle directly across from where you came out into the right side and slide it up though the fold for a 1/2-inch.
- Then enter the left side directly across from where you exited the right side.
- Repeat
Once you do this a few times you will have a little ladder of stitches as shown above.
- Pull the stitches taut and they will almost disappear.
- When you get to the end of your length of thread take a couple of tacking stitches but this time sew though the interfacing as well, while making sure not to sew though to the front of the tie, which will hold the interfacing in place.
Sew the entire inside seam of the tie in this way.
Once you're done, press the tie thoroughly to get rid of the middle seam and you'll be finished! Enjoy! --Molly
March 3, 2009
Reader Comments (87)
And would love ideas for sloppy, hoodie-wearing tomboy sister too :-)
I would print it out & stick it into the pocket of my husband's suite so that when we get to a hotel for some special ocation we don't have to go looking for someone to HELP
I just checked the pdf and all four pages are there, did you try going to the next page? I'll see if I can email the pdf to you directly just in case.
Also, can you tell me anything about the picture of the bird in the background of the photo? I collect bird images and that one is really special.
Thanks so much - Carolanne
Beautiful. That's what I wanted to make for my little son, a real tie, that liberty has a lot of success in France
I'm going to email the pdf to you directly, please let me know if you don't receive it.
Joelle
My son and I have an ongoing game of "punch buggy", so a tie made out of this fabric with tiny VW bugs, is that much more entertaining and FUN! It sold him. He's a sporty guy who's never worn a tie (we live in Seattle, not NYC, no ties required).
Thanks for another fabulous project.
Michelle
I think it may be a little short for an 11 year old. I don't think it would be that hard to lengthen it at each end of the seam at the back of the neck. It might be worth checking out 11 year old ties to see how long they are and compare to this which is 46-inches long.
Now I can't download it either! I'm going to work on it and re-upload it, probably tomorrow. When I get it done, I'll also email it to you.
Thanks for letting us know!
Joelle
The pdf has been fixed here and I'll email it to you now.
Joelle
I tried it with cute little pirate fabric I purchased on Etsy and my son was the hit of our Easter celebrations! so cute! Thought you might want to check it out!
http://lukeandhailiegirl.blogspot.com/2009/04/night-before-easter.html
Thanks so much!
Cara
I'll definitely make more. Let me know if you start a flickr group, I'll add my pic.
-E
http://www.robynmiddleton.com/?p=223
You've saved him from wearing a tie about half the width of his midriff LOL - Again, thanks so much for sharing your talent - AMAZING!!
We have a project journal for making a men's tie as well! You can find the complete pattern here:
http://www.purlbee.com/fathers-day-ties/
You should probably make the 4 year old tie first so you can see how it's made because you'll probably want to reduce the pattern for your 8 month old. We just got in a whole bunch of new Liberty yesterday and will be posting it in the next couple of days so you should keep your eye on them, there are some really cute new prints!
You can find our LIberty Collection here:
http://www.purlsoho.com/purl/products/fabricdetail/1695
You can reduce the pattern by reducing it on a copy machine by 10- 20% depending on how much smaller you want it. As long as you reduce every piece of the pattern by the same percentage it should still come together fine. Thank you so much for your comment!
We want to congratulate you on being one of our first features and look forward to featuring more of your cute posts! Thanks for helping us kick off the start of our blog!
Kimi
http://ificould-ificould.blogspot.com/
You are the second person this has happened too. We can't figure out why, but what we'll do is email the pdf to you. I'll email it momentarily! --Joelle
im wondering if any1 knows where i can find a pattern to make a baby sized vest. if you have a pattern i can use can you email it to me by chance?
You can find a link to our baby cable vest here:
http://www.purlbee.com/cabled-baby-vest/
Hope this helps!