DIY Bow Tie

My daughter selected our "color scheme" for Easter dress this year.  She had to have a yellow and white dress from Old Navy.  I added a navy cardigan to it just in case the weather was a little chilly.  Which put me on the search for yellow and navy for our son.  I was lucky in the navy department.....not so much the yellow.

I searched high and low for some type of yellow bow tie.  I don't know why I thought I would find anything.  I have the same problem every time I try and find a bow tie for my son.  So I picked up materials (instead of wasting more time scouring the mall and amazon) and I made him a bow tie.

This was my second bow tie to make for him.  Last time I put it on a clip but this time I attached it to elastic and I liked it so much better.  Just better for his age (21 months).

Here is how I did it.

Hot Iron

1/2 yard of your favorite fabric

Needle and Thread

Scissors

Ruler

Iron the creases out of your fabric

Determine how "fat" you want your bow tie to be.

I cut 6 inch wide x 18 in long strip of fabric.

(It ended up a little too long)

In the end I settled with a 10 in length strip of fabric.

You will just have to play with it and see what works best for your little guy's size

Next I folded in the edges and ironed a crease

You can see that I did this for the top and the bottom of the long strip

Then I folded the creased edges in one more time and ironed them flat.

This keeps anything from fraying or sticking out of the finished product.

Next I folded the left side of the material into the middle

and ironed a crease on the outer left hand side of the material

I then folded the right side of the material into the middle

and ironed a crease on the outer right hand side of the material  

You want to make sure that material overlaps a little in the middle

I then cinched the material in the middle with my fingers

And ran a stitch from bottom to top

Up and Down, Up and Down all the way across

 Here is what it should look like when you have completed the stitching

Next I cut a slim piece of fabric 

and ironed the edges in as well to prevent fraying

I cut a piece of elastic to secure to the bow tie.

Note: Put your child's shirt on and run the elastic around the neck of the shirt in the manner he will wear the shirt.  Then cut the elastic 1/2" or so shorter than what you measured to ensure the elastic will fit properly and not hang.

Next I stitched from the back side of the elastic through the front side of the bow tie.  

Until it was secure to the elastic

It will not look pretty on the front....but we are about to fix that

Next take your long skinny piece of fabric and wrap it around the middle of the bow tie

Stitch the back side of the skinny fabric like so

and cut off the excess material. 

Your finished project should look like this!

Here is my little man, avoiding looking at the camera.

And here he is on Easter wearing the finished project!

I think it turned out SUPER CUTE!

Hope this project saves you a little time and money next time you are on the hunt for a bow tie!