HTC Tailor's Pride Tie Project
By choosing a fabric that matches someone’s personality or is complementary to a specific suit, you can create a beautiful tie that will be appreciated for years to come. Tailor’s Pride ensures that your tie comes out looking sharp and professional.
By Laurie Pessetto
A tie is not the most exotic or unique gift, but it gets worn on a regular basis for work, church, and special occasions so a cool tie can get a lot of mileage. Every pattern company has ties, so pick one, find a fabulous piece of fabric or one that matches the recipient’s personality, and create your version for that favorite man in your life!
You would think that a tie would be simple to sew, but actually, it can be challenging. Anytime you have to cut fabric on the bias, there is a potential for problems, and this is one reason why ties can be a pain! But this step-by-step article is intended to make it easier and help you avoid many commonly made mistakes.
The fabric is one major determinant. A woven, nontraditional fabric can make construction easier while a slippery, prone-to-fray, shiny fabric will be the most difficult to sew.
The satin lining fabric I chose had too much stretch, so I reinforced it with Touch O’Gold II, 1850-1, HTC’s fusible lightweight interfacing with some bias stretch. Some hints to remember are that the first tiny seams of the tie you sew form the tip of the tie. Place the pattern tie tip on the color you want the most noticeable part of the tie to be. The tip seams should not be very wide, perhaps only 3/8". The lining should lie flat and not be loose.
Fabrics typically chosen for ties are silks or other flashy fabrics. They often will fray. If so, plan to use a delicate touch and use a fray deterrent product. Test it on a scrap to see if it will be visible when dry.
Fraying also makes it impossible to grade seams well, so there will be more bulk in the seams. The flame fabric I chose stretched differently on the black, gold, and embroidered edges. For best results, choose a fabric with consistent bias stretch.
There are several YouTube videos of exotic tie makers creating expensive ties as well as simplified, homemade videos. You might want to watch a few to get an idea of how a tie pattern goes together. Purchased patterns have instructions, but no explanation of why steps are done one way vs. another.
Decide what your tie should be like, then think about the instructions to see if those two things align. If they don’t—adapt the instructions. This step-by-step article is intended to be supplemental to basic pattern instructions, with in-depth explanations about the steps.
Bias cuts require more fabric than straight grain cuts, so don’t skimp when buying fabric, if anything buy extra. If your fabric is woven and easy to manage, this project might take a couple hours. Add more time if your fabric requires extra care. You might set the tie under the sewing machine presser foot to hold it while you do the hand stitching.
Skill Level
The sewing is straight line seams and hand stitching. The difficulty is moderate, depending on the characteristics of the selected fabric because it is cut on the bias. Pattern instructions also may be challenging to understand.
If you do not have experience cutting fabric on the bias, check out this how-to article on “How To Determine The Grain Of The Fabric.”
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