DIY Men's Tie turned to Little Boy Bowtie

I wanted a little boy's bowtie-and I really wasn't about to pay $10.99 for one. I mean I can get a pair of jeans for that at Old Navy. Come on guys $10.99????? Let's make one for free.
First step take your husband into his closet and say, "What ties haven't you worn for say uh....5 years?"
Then he will part with 5 or six and BAM you have your baby boy's bowties in hand...Almost.

So first let me give credit to Make it and Love it where I took this tutorial from and turned it into SMALL size. The one on here website is for your husband and is an awesome tutorial, but I needed it to be for a little boy, so I am about to tell you how to do that-using some of her techniques but also adding my own because I had to change a lot to make it work for a baby.

Let us begin this sewing machine free-needle and thread version. Feel free to use your sewing machine whenever you think you can-I just prefer needle and thread, and you have to use needle and thread for most of it. And please ignore my horrible nail polish.

Take the end of the tie lay it flat. We are first going to cut and make our actual bow.

Measure 3 1/2 inches and stick a pin in vertically.

Measure at 7 1/2 inches and stick a pin in vertically.

Those pins will be your fold lines.

Fold in on the first pin.

Remember this is a small bowtie, you can change the length to make it a little bit bigger if you need to. This bowtie could range from baby up to 8-9 year olds. Depending on how you like your bowties.

Fold in the other side.

Then cut the excess off of the long tie side. But leave an overlap.

Keep the pins in for now.

The overlap is not life or death crucial on exact measurement, just make sure it passes the middle by over an inch. You will sew this edge 1/2 inch under.

Take the cut end of the tie and fold over 1/2 inch. If you chose to iron make sure it is on the LOWEST setting or it will melt your tie. Touch down quickly to check it and don't hold the iron on for too long. 

Start hand sewing that edge (this is where you could use a machine, but either way works perfect). 

Remember the middle of the bowtie is going to be hidden by the middle wrap at the end, so this will all be covered up.

Now that you have finished the 1/2 sew under trim it up-the interfacing will probably be hanging out a little.

Then you will sew the end of the tie to the other part of the tie keeping the overlap. With your pins still acting as guides for fold lines. This will turn it into a bracelet of sorts.

Remember these stitches will be hidden.

Then your triangle top end-which in on the inside of the tie, probably needs to be sewed down so you can have a flush front, it may stick out just a hair.

It is on the inside but you don't want the corners of the triangle top end to be poking out of your bowtie. Just do a few hand stitches to keep it down.

You probably only need to do it on one side to hide it.

Then you will have that flush look-no corners poking out.

So you should have a bracelet by now and you can now take out the pins keeping the fold where the pins were.

Get your needle and thread ready and squeeze the bracelet in the middle then stick that needle right through it. Make sure you always have knots at the end of your thread.

Stick it through then get ready to wrap it!

Wrap it several times and then pull very tight.

Then it gets tricky. I push the thread under where I just wrapped with the needle point a few times, then I cut the thread and knot it. Just get creative and make it so it won't unravel. I split my thread (Because I double thread when I hand stitch) and I put one thread on each side of the ravel part then tie the two pieces of thread together. But if that is Greek to you-then just do what you need to do.

 Now we will work on the actual tie part of the bow tie.

Measure out 18 inches and cut. This may look really long, but you will lose a half inch on each end, and then about 2 inches on each end for where they overlap and velcro. It is better to go bigger because then your little guy won't grow out of it, and you can do more velcro and more overlap then less and less overlap as they grow.

Take that newly cut piece and fold in half and iron lightly. If you don't iron this it may be difficult to sew and when you sew it make sew crooked, but if you want to do it without ironing, it is easy to follow the tie because it has a perfect line down the middle for folding.

Fold on the line and keep that line on the inside.

This could be done with a sewing machine and is probably faster but it is possible to hand stitch.

After you finish hand stitching you will fold the ends over half inch and stitch. Then trim the excess off, the interfacing will probably get pushed out, just trim that off after you sew.

Your finished with the tie part!

Now we need to attach the bow to the tie.

Place the bow in the middle of the tie. Stitch the bow to the tie right where you wrapped the thread around your bow several times. These stitches will be hidden by the middle wrap, so just do a good job and make sure it is secure. Do this on both sides of the bow.

Look at that we are almost there!

Now we need to make the center strip for the bowtie-the final piece!! 

Take the end of the tie where it may be starting to get wider and measure around the  middle of bow and tie and cut. (It will be folded in half vertically) Make sure you can go all the way around your bow and tie with 1/2 inch to spare because you will sew the edge under.

Unstitch this just a little bit and pull out the interfacing.

The interfacing makes it way to bulky around the middle-you can always leave it in if you like the way it looks.

You will fold this part of the tie in half vertically and wrap it around the center of the bow.

Wrap it around and pull it so tight.

You may have a lot of excess, that is fine you can just cut it off-but remember to leave 1/2 and maybe a little more because you have to sew that edge under.

Take that cut edge and tuck it under half inch and sew it, it may be easiest to do it off of the bowtie, but you may be a pro and can sew it under while you sew it on the bowtie. Do as you wish. Those corners may stick out and show a fray edge, but just stitch them down and cut off the fray.

 If you sewed the edge under 1/2 inch seperately you now need to attach it to the bowtie and stitch it all down. Pull it very tight before you stitch it together.

Your finished stitch on the middle wrap.

Now take those ends of the tie and add velcro.

I use SUPER sticky velcro so I don't sew it down, but feel free to sew it down if needs be. 

The more velcro you use the further you can overlap, you can also use snaps but I find velcro is pretty good if you are just wearing it under a collar.

Oh thank you old tie for making a GORGEOUS little man bowtie!