Birthday Week Day Three

Today is my birthday! I am turning 30 today....I've heard good and bad things about this age...we'll see. This is a two part post, giveaway AND tutorial, so just keep scrolling down!

First, the giveaway: Up for grabs today is a scarf (scarflette) upcycled from a vintage men's tie (circa 1970s...). The tie is gold with very narrow brown stripes in different shades. It is backed with gold silk and lined with thin batting. It is warm, but feels very cool and silky against your skin. It is designed to be buttoned closed across your upper chest, but can also just be hung around your neck. I seriously will probably not ever wear a regular scarf again, this is so comfortable. To win, just leave me a comment sometime today.....

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And in case you don't win, here are the directions to make your own. I would guess this is a beginner to intermediate level pattern. Please make this only for your personal use, not for sale. Thanks!

Step 1 - find a tie, and take out the stitches in the back (it's usually one handsewn piece of thread that can be pulled out all at once if you're careful). Also carefully remove the stitches from the lining on the ends ONLY DOWN TO THE CORNER (the stitches on the triangular piece at the bottom should be left intact). Do NOT remove the original silky lining that is attached at both ends.

Step 2 - remove the inner stiffener and iron the tie flat. Make sure your iron is set to the correct temperature. Step 3 - lay the tie on your fabric backing with right sides together and pin well, then cut it out. If you would like, cut the triangular piece at either end 1/4" longer than your tie.

Step 4 - lay the tie and backing down on batting, pin, and cut it out. You should have three identically shaped layers pinned together at this point.

Step 5 - unpin just the ends of the tie and do a rolled hem on the lining piece on both ends. Sew this neatly.

Step 6 - move your pins to the other side one at a time so that the batting is now the top layer. It is MUCH easier to sew this way.

Step 7 - sew two seams, one up each long side of the batting/lining/tie sandwich. Leave both ends open. Go slowly and keep your stitch lines smooth.

Step 8 - trim the batting on the ends down so it is the same size as the lining. Also trim the batting off the seam allowances so your seams aren't as bulky.

Step 9 - Turn your tie right side out carefully and iron flat.

Step 10 - pin and handstitch the lining to the tie, being careful to just catch the original lining and not go through to the front of the tie.

Step 11 - Choose three buttons and sew them onto the wide part of the tie and put a buttonhole in the narrow end.

Step 12 - make your husband or boyfriend take you out to show it off.....but don't tell them you stole their tie.

Tied and Muffled

I have a box of 5 or 6 men's ties. My dad doesn't wear ties and I don't really know a lot of people that do (farmers mostly think ties are dangerous) but I really like men's ties for some reason. I have picked up a few from time to time at the thrift store with the idea of using them for handles on bags, like I did with this one on the left. The only problem with that is that ties are generally cut on the bias, so they stretch a little bit.

I have been thinking about ties though lately, and the other night got the idea to make one into a scarf. I didn't know exactly how I wanted to do this, but did decide to make the back out of silk or something soft like that. I didn't take a picture of the before tie, but it was an awesome, very retro '70s tie that was chocolate brown with daisies and butterflies on it. Very manly, I know. I ended up with this....which is not a great picture, but is the closest you will get to seeing me on this blog. Here is the scarf (scarflette??) untied and hung up with the remainder of the gold silk as a background:
I started by splitting the tie up the back and taking the stiffener out of it, then ironing it flat. That was the point that I realized that a tie is VERY wide at the bottom. There's a lot of fabric in those things! I debated cutting it down, but decided not to this time since I liked the lining and didn't want to resew the ends. I may do this on a different scarf. I then pinned the flat tie onto some gold silk that I found in a drawer and cut out another tie shape of gold silk and one of polyester batting. Then I layered them together, sewed the two long sides and turned it inside out. Some handstitching on the ends and I was done! I used some of the buttons my mom brought me over Thanksgiving and put a buttonhole on the other end and tried it on. Nice and warm, but very smooth against my skin. I am not a huge fan of fleece scarves and I really like the way this one feels. Any thoughts? I have a few more ties and I am thinking of making some for the shop but would love to know what you think first.