made: baby neckties

So far I am loving my word of the year, because it not only encourages me to finish making things that got started long ago but also inspires me to look for new ideas. Yesterday I was walking around the house gathering things for Goodwill, and just as I was tossing Steve's pile of rejected ties into the bag I saw the skinny end and thought--those would be perfect for some Charlie ties! So I picked two of my favorites, abandoned my clean up efforts, and headed to my craft room. You can make some, too.

First, measure out your preferred tie length and trim it off the skinny end of the tie (you know, the part that goes in back when it is actually tied on a grownup) as well as a length just above that to be your (pretend) tie knot.

Wrap the shorter piece around the top of your tie piece, back side out (the side with the visible fold). Eyeball where you want your knot to taper down, and pin. Then sew on a diagonal from the pin to the opposite outer corner (to make the knot shape) with the front sides together, fold facing out. Like so:

And trim off the excess fabric.

Next flatten it out so the seam you've just sewn is in the middle, on the back. You could press it with an iron... but I was lazy and so I just pressed down with my fingers a little.

Now its time to attach the tie to its "knot." Take your tie piece with the back (fold) side facing up, and tuck the raw edge into the fold of the knot piece:

Now just tack the fold down over the top with some quick stitches, being careful only to go through the back layer of fabric (you don't want your stitches to show through on the front of your tie later). These stitches are going to get tucked away, so you can use whatever thread you want and your stitches don't have to be pretty (just sturdy).

Now flip the whole thing right side out. Almost there! Hurray! Except now you'll probably have an ugly pointy raw edge at the top like I did:

Tuck it down into the center, and tack it with a few stitches in a thread similar to your tie color.

Now you should have something a little like this:

At this point, my tie knot looked a little boxy:

But I wanted it to look more like this:

So I just pinched the bottom half of my knot a little from the back and tacked it with a couple little stitches. Then go ahead and stitch on your elastic (obviously be careful of choking hazards if you go this route, though I'm sure I don't have to tell you that) to the top (I did mine at the seam, but you could tuck it into the knot at the top corners if you want it to look more polished... I just wanted it to be not a lot of work) or attach a clip so you can affix your tie to baby's super dapper ensemble.

And voila! An itsy bitsy baby tie. Go ahead and say it: OH FOR PRECIOUS. I know. Grandmas everywhere are passing out at the cuteness. And so will I when I get one on Charlie.