Easter Ties

Every Easter (and I do mean Easter morning, as we are rushing around getting ready for church) I take stock of my boys' closets, looking for something a little more fancy than usual to dress them in. Of course, there is never anything. If either of them happens to have a white dress shirt, it is stained beyond repair, and "nice" pants (pants that haven't been repaired with iron-on patches) are usually too short. This year I am determined to not let that happen. I have a few days left, right? Why not whip up some cute Easter ties? Well, I had a very hard time finding patterns for children's ties on-line, so I decided to wing it. This post certainly can't qualify as a tutorial, as I don't know if I can even duplicate the process I went through for Titus' tie to make one for Moses. But I took a few pictures along the way - maybe these can help you wing it yourself. :)

First I used a piece of string to estimate how long the tie would need to be - hung it around Moses' neck, added a few inches for tying purposes, and hoped for the best. Then I used a tie we already have (it isn't a full tie - just a pre-tied one on an elastic necklace) for the shape. I taped the string on a huge piece of paper, and then things started getting weird. There was some tracing, the use of a belt as a straight-edge, lots of erasing, and I finally came up with a template for the tie.



I placed the template on my fabric so that the tie would be cut on the bias (the one tip I was able to find on-line) and used my rotary cutter to cut out two tie pieces - one for the front and one for the back. I also cut out one piece from some white cotton muslin I had (again on the bias), which acted as interfacing. I sandwiched my pieces with the first printed piece right-side-up, the muslin in the middle, then the second print wrong-side-up. I pinned the heck out of it and sewed around the outside with a 1/4" seam, leaving a small opening for turning.




The scariest part was turning it because I didn't know if I had just spent hours creating a mess, but it worked! I carefully ironed the edges, sewed up the opening, and we had our first tie! Titus is very excited to wear his car tie on Easter. I'll be making another one for Moses and will show you how cute they look all dressed up for Easter. For now, you'll have to settle with seeing it on Titus in his jammies (and not tied properly because Daddy isn't home).