Family Ties

Okay, well just one tie actually.  Here's my first attempt at a tie (last week's Father's Day gift for Mike). I found the pattern here but cross-checked it with a few other sites because the pattern (annoyingly) doesn't say what the final dimensions of the tie will be.  Turns out this tie is standard 3.5" width at the widest section.  You wouldn't be able to guess it from the pattern alone which looks like it's for an enormous clown.  It's easy to forget that the sides fold to the back so that the finished width is considerably reduced.

There was actually very minimal use of the sewing machine for this project.  The only seams were attaching the three sections that make up the length of the tie, plus making the diagonal edges at the two ends.  The rest is all hand-stitching.  A bit tedious but something you can easily do while curled up on the couch watching your favourite show.

I was a bit skeptical of breaking up the length of the tie into three sections as opposed to cutting the tie out of a single long piece of fabric but the seams ended up being quite obscure.  Here's a closeup of one of the seams (extending from thumb diagonally down to middle finger).  Not obvious at all! And it means a lot of savings on fabric, especially if you are using an expensive silk.  The tie is cut on the bias (45 degrees diagonal to the grain) which requires almost a full yard of cut as a single piece of fabric.  With this one I needed only half a yard and had some scraps left over.  

Several patterns call for light to medium-weight interfacing between the outer fabric and lining but one site recommended using a wool for additional padding. I liked the feel of the cotton quilt batting that I add to my wool capes so that's what I used here rather than interfacing.  

Finally I added the little piece that holds the narrow end of the tie in place.  Handstitched again.  The only thing that's missing is a nice label :)  Hmm.