Virginia Striped Little Boy's Tie

For Leo, on his daddy's graduation, I wanted to make a classic Virginia striped tie—a wardrobe staple for loyal Wahoos. Since blue and orange striped fabric was not to be found, I decided to make it myself (in a moment of over-ambition insanity).

I used the free Little Boy's Tie pattern from the Purl Bee.

The tutorial didn't specify what age "little boy" this tie was designed for, and it turned out pretty big for my almost-three-year-old. At least he has plenty of room to grow into it. I would say the pattern is better for a 5 - 8 year old maybe.

I cut 1" strips from the same navy and orange Kona Cotton I used in Louisa's dress, and sewed them together with a scant quarter-inch seam allowance. Since ties are cut on the bias, which can eat up a lot of fabric, I ended up piecing short strips together one-at-a-time along the pattern pieces so that I wasn't wasting to much hand-pieced yardage. Hopefully the picture above shows what I mean. I had to stop and press the seam allowances open each time. Tedious? Yes.

I hand-stitched the lining pieces in as instructed in the pattern, but I decided to machine stitch the main seam like I have for AJ's ties, mainly to save time. I also used fusible interfacing instead of sew-in.

The lining is a DS Quilts print from Joann that was the main fabric of Louisa's dress.

Unfortunately little Leo got a major stomach bug just in time for graduation, and ended up spending most of the day with my sister in a t-shirt instead of at the events in his snazzy new tie.

But once he felt better this week, he got decked out and posed with sis for the small fee of 15 mini-marshmallows. :)