Bow Ties for Little People and Big People

As you may remember, if you visit my blog fairly often, last Halloween my family dressed up in Doctor Who costumes.  Since then I posted about how I made the 11th Doctor costumes and the TARDIS costume.  But as I was writing the post on the 11th Doctor costumes I skipped explaining how I made the Doctor's iconic bow tie and left it for a future post.  Well, the time for that post has come!

You all know you want to know how to make bow ties.

Because bow ties are cool.


Bow Ties for Little People

To make a small-person bow tie, you need some velcro, a 4 inch by 4 inch piece of fabric, a 2 inch by 3/4 inch piece of fabric, and a piece of fabric that is 1 inch wide by whatever length you need to go around their neck, plus a little.

Starting with the long, 1 inch wide piece of fabric, fold it in half right-side in, pin, and sew a seam lengthwise, turning it into a long tube. 

Turn the tube right-side out (generally the easiest way is by fastening a safety pin to one end and threading it through the tube of fabric).  Press the tube flat and attach velcro to each end so that it will sit comfortably around your little person's neck.

Take the 4x4 piece of fabric and fold it in half, right-side in.  Pin and sew lengthwise, 1/4 inch from the edge, leaving a 1-2 inch gap in the middle.

Unpin, and adjust the tube of fabric so that the seam is sitting in the middle of one side.  Pin the flaps made by the seam flat to the fabric.

Sew 1/4 inch seams along both of the short ends.

Turn it right-side out through the hole you left in the lengthwise seam, and hand stitch the hole closed.

Turn it over - the other side doesn't have any seams at all!  That is the front of your bow tie.

Take the final small piece of fabric, fold it in half right-side in, and sew lengthwise to make it a narrow tube.  Turn it right-side out and stitch each end closed.

Gather the bow tie in the middle, wrap the small strip you just made around the middle and hand stitch it to the back of the bowtie so that it keeps it gathered in the middle.  Attach the bow tie to the middle of the long strip you made first, and it is finished!

Bow Ties for Big People

While "pre-tied" bow ties are simple and easy to use, especially for little people, I decided to make a "real" bow tie for the big Doctor costume.  I found a great tutorial here that came with its own pattern.  I won't go into detail on how it's made, since the tutorial does such a great job, but here is a summary.

Print out the pattern and trace it on your fabric, cutting 4 pieces in total.  If your fabric isn't stiff you will want to use some iron-on interfacing to make it stiff.  In pairs, sew the ends of your fabric pieces together to make 2 long pieces. 

Pin right-sides together and sew all the way around, leaving a hole near the middle.

Before turning it right-side out, clip the corners so that they will lay nice and flat.

Turn it right-side out, hand stitch the hole closed, and iron.

 Then all that is left for you to do is learn how to tie a bow tie, and go be cool!