The final family Christmas present was a tie for Dad. The hardest part of tie making is finding good fabric – you need to buy special tie silk (which so far I’ve only found at Mood in NYC), but for some unknown reason it’s almost all cheesy 80s designs! Therefore it took a bit of a search to find an acceptable design which would suit my Dad. Luckily, I finally found this navy blue gridded design and once again I used the great Purl Bee pattern and tutorial:
I widened the pattern a bit (as my Dad is not really a skinny-tie type) and also added about 5 inches to the length as my Dad is a tall chap and doesn’t need a mid-stomach ending tie.
I’m still not brilliant at making the end pointy, but it was passable:
And another use of my new tags!
Ties are very satisfying to make – once you have tie silk, it looks professional almost immediately! Key thing is to not press it too much, and to take care with cutting everything on the bias. I do want to improve my finishing skills though… anyone have any top tips?
That looks fab! I made a tie once from my grampa from a purple paisley brocade. It came great! He’s retired so I no longer have anyone to makes ties for. Too bad, they at a fun project. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Rachel! My Dad sent me the selfie of him wearing it so it’s good to know it was passable. You should definitely acquire some new tie making chaps in your life 🙂