Re-purposing Men’s Ties to Boys’ Ties: 3 Picture Tutorials

Tie the tie around your little guy's neck, using the skinny end as the front. Decide where you want the end of the tie to be, and then add one inch and mark it.

Make the cut where you indicated.

Fold in the two sides up to make a point, and hand sew down the middle of that small one inch portion and all the way across.

Tie it! Now you are done! BTW, it's REALLY hard to get a clear picture of a little two-year-old wearing a tie. I tried 46 times to get this picture, no joke!

I am starting with a leftover tie portion from a different re-purposed tie.

Fold the tie in "half". Determine how long you want the front & back of the tie, and take into account that we are including the distance of the knot portion (which is about 1''). I wanted my tie from the top of the knot to the bottom of the tie about 8 inches. The back of the tie might be 5 inches. So altogether I have a 13'' portion that I have cut.

Remove the labels.

Take out the felt or whatever material that is in the tie.

If you have another tie, you can use it as an outline for a tie. Since this part won't be seen you can mark this to get the right size you want.

Cut it out. Don't worry if it's a bit wonky.

Insert it back into the tie.

Soon you will sew the silk back together, so fold over the silk and determine if you need to cut off any extra bulky silk. Make sure you leave enough silk to be able to sew the two long ends together.

Now cut the extra bulky silk.

Start pinning the two long sides together.

Cut out about an inch of the felt fabric inside so it's less bulky.

Hand sew the two sides together. I am not worried that my line is totally straight since it's the back of the tie (I would have ironed this if I had easy access to an ironing board to get a straight line).

I cut a triangle of silk away so the end is less bulky.

Fold raw edge in. Pin, and sew (you can use a machine for this part).

Pin up the ends to make a point. My pin job is kind of ugly, but you can smooth it as you go. Hand sew.

The main part is now done.

Fold it the way you want it to hang on the handsome little guy.

Take some silk and fold it around the tie for the knot portion.

Gather the bottom portion so it is tighter than the top of the knot.

Finish gathering the silk so it looks like a knot, and pin it. Right now you are looking at what will be the inside portion of the knot.

Here it is, pinned in the back.

Sew down where you pinned. I hand sewed it since I was out and about, but you could machine sew this.

Cut the extra material off, leaving about 1/4'' from the line to the edge.

Turn the loop inside out to hide the raw edge of the seam.

Cut your elastic so it just fits around the dress shirt collar. Make sure it's not too loose or too tight so it won't be a hazard. Hand sew the ends of the elastic together. If it's too loose, you can always sew it a bit tighter.

Put the elastic in the fold of the tie.

Twist the tie at the fold so both back sides will lay against the chest of your handsome lil' guy.

Pull the knot portion up (you can use a big safety pin for this if it helps), making sure the seam of the knot portion faces the back. In this picture I forgot to twist the tie, so make sure you twist it to look more authentic.

The finished product with the twist!

Grab a tie. Fold it in "half", determining the length of the front and back hanging portions. Add an inch to your desired length, and cut. Mine is about 13'' total.

Open up the last inch or so of the tie, revealing the felt.

Cut about an inch of the felt away.

You can hem the raw edge up at this time if desired. It makes the process easier: learn from my mistakes:). Fold up both edges to make a point. Pin it, and sew it down, making sure you don't sew all the way through the material.

Cut about 3'' for what will be your knot portion. Now flip it so you are looking at what will be the inside of this knot portion.

Make sure the knot portion fits around the top of the tie, & mark it (you can look at tutorial #2 for more directions). Sew it at an angle so it looks more like a knot.

Flip the knot portion so you see the front/right side of the material. If there's material that sticks out, you can sew it into the knot to hide it.

Cut your elastic so it fits around the dress shirt collar. Make sure it's not too loose or too tight so it won't be a hazard. Hand sew the ends of the elastic together.

Put your elastic loop through the tie.

Twist the tie so it looks more authentic.

Fold the twisted tie in "half".

Pull up your knot portion adjusting it so it looks like a knot. Use a big safety pin to pull it through if needed. And here is the finished product!