BOW TIES!

I had a fair trade request when I was asked to make bow ties in exchange for a service I needed.  I jumped at the chance.  How difficult could bow ties be?  Well...they are not difficult but I learned that the bias cut requires quite a bit of fabric.

I started by using this free pattern I found online:

http://www.angelaosborn.com.au/diy-bow-tie-free-pattern/

Here is her example of a finished tie:

Totally awesome pattern.  I had to enlarge it 118% to make it scale, but that was the magic number to get exactly the right measurements.  The author provided a box with what it should measure and it took a few tries to get it right.

They were an easy sewing project but more time consuming than I expected because of the hand stitching to close the tie.  A pointy chopstick is absolutely nenecessary for successful inside-outing, and getting the bow tie corners as pointy as you can.

I ended up sewing three sets, and had enough material to make matching pocket squares.  It was fun!