Boys Tie Pattern

I posted a while back about using a men's tie to make a boy's tie. Here's the tutorial for that at Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky!

I made a few ties for my son with that tutorial and thought they turned out great. You can see mine if you scroll to the bottom of this other post.

My brother is getting married next month and his bride had chosen gray, navy and yellow for her colors. We're all getting outfits ready to match. My son (wearing 4T and my nephew 6-8ish) are supposed to have matching ties.

I've been using thrift store ties for my son's ties. I knew the chances of finding one yellow and navy tie that I liked was slim. The chance of finding two of the same tie was pretty much impossible. So, I took a men's tie and a tie I had made for my son and did some measuring to create a pattern. It all came together to make this tie:BOY'S TIE PATTERN
You'll need:
Fabric for tie - about 1/4 yard
Fabric for lining - about a 10"x5" scrap
interfacing (if using a thin fabric) about 1/4 yard
3" Velcro
pattern
Notes:
The whole project can be done without a sewing machine.
This makes a 12" long tie. The neck band is 15" finished. Make adjustments on length as you need.

Step 1: Cut out all pattern pieces. Label the piece that is 2 1/2 x 4" "knot." I forgot to label that one (sorry.)

Pin the pieces to your fabric and cut them out. If you have a directional pattern to your fabric, be sure to lay out your pieces so everything is going the same way. The knot piece needs to have the 4" side going up and down the same direction as the tie pieces.

You'll see below that I had to get creative to make a navy and yellow tie. I decided on some bright yellow fabric for tie part. The lining piece in the back will be navy. I couldn't find any yellow and navy fabric I liked. I had to add the dots myself.Step 2: If you decided to use some interfacing with your fabric, now is the time to cut it out and iron it on your tie pieces. (Note that you won't need to use interfacing on the lining pieces.) My fabric was fairly thick, so I decided just to cut a tie shaped piece of interfacing for the center of the tie.

Step 3: Iron all the folds indicated by dotted lines on your pattern pieces. For most of them, it's a 1/4" width.

Step 4: Take the pressed BIG and SMALL tie lining pieces and place them wrong sides together with the BIG and SMALL tie pieces. Pin the "V" shape.
Step 5: Using a matching strand of thread (I used navy), make some small "invisible" stitches to sew the pieces together.
Step 6: You see on the picture above how the sides have been pressed at 1/4"? Fold that in. Now take the two sides and fold them to the center, to form a straight line. Press. Turn the tie over and make sure you it looks even. You might need to adjust it a bit.
Step 7: Take a matching thread (I used yellow) and make small stitches and sew the two sides together up the center. Be sure not to stitch through to the front of the tie.

Do both the SMALL and BIG tie pieces the same way.
Did you notice that all of a sudden I have some blue spots on my tie? I used Wonder Under to attach them to the BIG tie. Step 8: Place the SMALL tie piece behind the BIG tie piece and stitch them together across the top. I wasn't paying attention and put my SMALL piece backwards. Don't do that. You'll have to unpick it like I did.Step 9: Turn the tie over and scrunch it up. I tried to make mine have a 'W' shape so it would look uniform coming out of the knot. Take your needle and thread, and stitch through that knot several times to keep it scrunched.Step 10: The knot. I have to tell you, the knot is the tricky part. It sometimes takes me a lot of work to get the knot "just right." You can do it; stick to it.

First, fold the knot piece like you see in the picture below. Just like a regular tie knot. Once you get it how you like it, press it. Step 11: Flip your knot over and open up the top fold. Place your tie, face down, on your knot. For extra security in attaching the tie to the knot, you can make some stitches attaching the tie part to the bottom fold of the knot. Again, be sure not to let your stitches go through to the front.
Step 12: Fold the two sides of the knot around the tie. Tuck the edge of one of the sides over to hide the unfinished edge.
Tuck the stuff that sticks up down into the knot. Turn your tie over and give it your final approval before you stitch.

Once you have the knot just how you like it, make stitches to sew it all together. Don't forget to make some of those stitches go through the tie part so the tie and knot are secure. You can be a little messy with this step. No one will see this part.

Step 13: Make the neckband. Alternately, you can use ribbon or something else to make this part. Take your long neckband strip. Press the lengthwise sides down 1/4" on each side. Then fold in half and press again. Stitch across the length of the fabric to keep it closed.Take the Velcro and cut it in half lengthwise (so it's still 3" long, just half as wide.) Fold the end of your band down about 1/4" and tuck it under one of your strips of Velcro. Stitch it in place. Do the same with the other piece of Velcro on the other side of the band.
Hand stitch the tie in place at the center of the neckband.

You're finished. Phew! If you want a shorter tie, you should be able to adjust it pretty easily. Don't worry about changing the size of the knot though. No matter what length of tie I've made, that 4" knot looks just right. Want to make some of those pants while you're at it? Get the free pattern and tutorial here.