... of some snazzy little men: Tie tutorial

My first tutorial! Today I made a few little tie onesies for two friends that just had boys and I decided to do a tutorial, since it's so easy!

Here is Abram sporting his at his first wedding.

Also, there are many cute things out there for girls, but not many for boys. And sometimes a baby needs to look a little dapper, but a tuxedo is not required. So I thought that this quick little homemade project for a boy would be fun.

This is more of an experiment than anything else. It's a super easy project and not one that I thought of myself. There are many people on etsy that sell these, and I am unsure about creative ownership issues. So I have never made them to sell, only to have Abram wear or give away.
But you could make it with a sewing machine and basic skills or even basic hand sewing skills. Hand sewing is will obviously take longer, but not much.

*Here are the supplies you will need:

-Ruler
-Scissors
-Pen
-Heavyweight fusible interfacing
-Onesie
-Fun fabric
-Thread roughly matching the fun fabric

*Start by figuring out how long you want the tie to be with your ruler.

My 0-3 month onesie tie is 6" long, total (1"tall top and 5" long bottom). My 6 month onesie is 7" long, total (1" top and 6" bottom), but you can eyeball depending on the particular onesie you are working with.

*Then draw the tie exactly the size you want it to end up being on the non-fusible side of your interfacing. Make sure it's symmetrical. You may want a "normal" looking tie, or maybe you want a 1960's super cool skinny tie... or an even more super cool, 1970's fat tie. It's up to you!

*Cut out your pieces and lay them on the onesie to make sure it's the size you want it (this is the exact size the tie will end up.

These are the measurements for my 0-3 month tie.

*Then place the fusible side of the interfacing on the WRONG side of the fun fabric. Make sure you line it up on the fabric in the direction you want the pattern to go. This will depend on the fabric you are using. I used the other tie I was making in this picture, since it had lines, which is a little different.

I like for the lines on the top to be horizontal and the lines on the bottom to be diagonal, but it's up to you.

*Iron on your interfacing. I usually try to hold the pieces in place as I flip it over and iron from the fabric side, because sometimes the interfacing warps under the direct heat from the iron.

*After that, trim the fabric around the interfacing leaving about .5" on all sides.

*Now use your iron to fold the extra fabric around the sides of the interfacing.

Some of the corner folding will be a little tricky. You don't want to trim the fabric around the corners (or you'll get fraying). So I iron it and then hold it in place with a pin until I'm ready to sew it onto the onesie. The top part is hard around the curve of the neck. You aren't going to get it perfectly curved, but I clip the access fabric just a little on the top to make the curve a little easier.

*Trim the access fabric on the top of the bottom part off.

I guess you could do that when you are cutting the fabric, but I realized at this point that it would make things easier.

*Then pin the top part onto the onesie (making sure to only pin through the front of the onesie). Tuck the top of the bottom part under the bottom of the top part... :) Does that make sense? This is what I like better about the ones that I've made compared to the ones I've seen for sale. I sort of gather the top of the bottom underneath to create a pucker. It makes it look more like a real tie and I like that.

You want to pin both parts together and sew them at the same time.

*Then you sew! Regardless of whether you are machine or hand sewing, you want to do a top running stitch all the way around all parts of the tie. I did the top first (all the way around), making sure I was sewing down both the top and bottom over the pucker. And then I went around the bottom part. If you are machine sewing, you have to do a little maneuvering, because the onesies are so little. Make sure you are only ever sewing through the front side! It's really easy to get the other side caught under the presser foot without knowing it and you will be seam ripping before you know it.

Also, try and go slowly and don't stretch the onesie fabric under the tie. You want it to lay nice and flat.

And you're done!

Pretty simple, right? Now go ahead and snazz up your little dude. He deserves it.

Don't ask. We were all tired and though this was really funny at the time...