Black and White Bow tie

I made a bow tie!! I am typically a selfish sewer and rarely make garments for others. My father-in-law asked me to make him a bow tie to wear to a black tie event. Specifically, he wanted a black and white, almost checkerboard effect. The idea is that each side of the bow is split into half with one part being white, the other black. The bow behind the front bow would then have the alternate colours. Sounds simple, but in practise this is very complex!!

I started by googling Bow Tie patterns and came across the David 008 Bow Tie Pattern by BurdaStyle. I chose this pattern as the Bow Tie is adjustable - none of the men in my family actually know how to tie a bow tie, so this was ideal as the bow on the front is fixed and the neck is adjustable. 

David 008 Bow Tie Pattern by BurdaStyle

After printing and piecing together the pattern, I firstly made a toile of the basic shape of the bow tie. This allowed me to practise tying a bow and to work out how to split the pattern to get the checkerboard effect I was after. Learning to tie a bow tie was challenging - I got it spot on the first time I tried, but the subsequent tries were not as successful. Practise makes perfect!  

I then split the pattern into parts according to colour and added seam allowances so that the bow part of the tie could be pieced together. In total there were 10 pattern pieces! This project did take a while to cut out, which was not helped by my fabric choice. 

After investigating my father-in-law's current selection of 3 bow ties (he goes to a fair few black tie events!) I decided that a satin fabric would give the best look for the bow tie and chose a silky satin dress fabric in black and white from Oh Sew Crafty. I didn't want to spend too much on the project in case it went wrong. The fabric was a good quality for the price but frayed horribly when cut, making it a complete pain to work with.

The pieced together parts of the bow tie came together nicely but some of the shape of the bows is slightly distorted. I think this is either due to the fabric shifting when cutting or perhaps overzealous pressing?

I ran into two major difficulties when making this bow tie. The first one was when turning the bow tie halves right side out. The idea is that you sew around the perimeter of the bow tie, leaving the small end open. You then turn it right side out by feeding it through the gap (Check out the picture below). Sounds easy, no?

Step 2 from the David 008 BurdaStyle Pattern instructions

In reality, this was not as easy as it seems. Not impossible but definitely tricky and I did have to walk away and come back to this at one point. The second difficulty came when I tried to work out how to get the adjustable clips onto the bow tie. This was mostly my own fault as I bought the wrong set of clips (adjuster and hook closure) so the ones I had were too small for the width of the neck band. In case anyones interested you need a 19mm bow tie set like this one from Calico Laine.

 

In the end I had to fudge the fitting by attaching a piece of elastic to one end and fixing the hook closure to the other. Although it certainly doesn't look pretty and contains some of the worst hand sewing I have ever done, it works.

I forced my husband into modelling it for me but I'm not sure that it quite matches his shirt! 

Overall I am really pleased with how this has worked out for a first attempt. I did leave myself very short of time so this has been rushed at points and whilst there are parts of the construction of the bow tie that are not perfect, I think on the whole it looks great. My father-in-law has proudly worn it to his event this evening, so we will see was that feedback is tomorrow!

Anyway, I hope everyone is enjoying the glorious weather we are having. I'm off to enjoy the remainder of the sunshine with a nice chilled drink and some homemade pizza.