Little Boy Ties

I've seen the pattern for these little boy ties a bunch of times but since I don't have a boy I keep putting them at the bottom of my craft list.

On my trip to the states I found a fabric that I thought would be so cute as a tie and I figured Michelle would love some for her boys so I finally got sewing.  She had a whole bunch of lousy things happen to her so I figured a fun surprise in the mail would brighten her day.

Make it and Love It has an awesome tie pattern that you can purchase, I loved my results and will definitely use it again so I think it was worth it.  It uses a fake knot and has velcro to attach at the neck so it works great for little boys.  Michelle has 3 month old and 3 year old boys so I could have used the pattern for both as she provides different sizes but I thought that Porter would love to have a big boy tie like his Daddy.  I used a free pattern from the Purl Bee for Porter instead.  The pattern is sized to fit a 10 year old though and I didn't want this tie to come to his knees so using some really basic math and the sizing from the velcro pattern I figured out how long the tie should be after the knot.  Then I used Brad's to figure out how long his tie is after his knot.  Then I used the best math I've ever learned, cross multiplication.  I multiplied Brad's length after the knot by Porter's length after the knot and then divided by Brad's total length, this gave me Porter's total length.  Since I don't have a 3 year old model Michelle will have to let you know if my math worked.  I then altered the Purl Bee's pattern to fit my length.  After that I followed all their steps except since my tie was so short I only needed one piece, not two like their pattern calls for.  This sounds far more complicated than it really was.

I actually found I enjoyed the Purl Bee's pattern more because it was all done by hand.  I haven't had a lot of experience using a slip stitch and I found it so satisfying as I was working.  My edges looked so clean and it turned out so professional looking, I guess I like to hand stitch.

I also learned on this project that my double sided iron-on stuff isn't as useless as I've though it was for years.  I just need to use steam and lots of it.  That in itself made the project worth while.

Rigby's tie turned out really cute.  I used some leftover fabric from Michelle's stroller, since she picked it out I knew she'd love it.  The nice thing about this pattern is since it's a fake knot you don't have to cut your fabric on the bias, saving a lot of waste.  Brad was impressed with my dimple, apparently on his mission all the Elders tried their hardest to get a good dimple.  I think my second attempt will look a little cleaner but I was pleased with my first attempt results.

Once I had both ties finished I gave the little tie and a vase to Brad so I could get some good pictures and as it turns out tying a tie is only something he can do if he doesn't think about it :)  He got his own tie and I copied him.  Oh, one suggestion... as cute as cotton fabric is Porter's tie is going to wrinkle like crazy, needing to be ironed after every wear.  Next time I wouldn't use cotton.

My last stroke of brilliance before I mailed them was to spray them both with Scotch Guard.

Hopefully Michelle will take pictures of them on her boys so we can all admire them and I'm crossing my fingers that they fit.  Catie did her best modeling but I can't wait to see them on boys, plus this tie is sized to fit a 3 month old and Catie is 9 months so it's obviously a little short.  I didn't put Porter's tie on her for a couple reasons.  It would involve re-tying and re-ironing the tie and as mentioned above it would involve wrestling my girl.