Tutorial: Tie Shirt Refashion

This was a guest post I did last August for Keeping It Simple. Enjoy!

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I find myself purchasing many v-neck tees and sometimes I like to spice them up. I found this cute idea for a tie necklace on Pinterest and decided that instead of a necklace, I would attach it permanently to the shirt. I knew going into this that this shirt would be a forever hand wash item because of the delicacy of the tie, but it was worth it.  I made a shirt for myself, but didn't document the process well, so this time around to make one for my friend, Jamie.

First, I went to Goodwill and found a tie that coordinates with the shirt Jamie gave me.

Next, I started pleating and pinning the tie. I didn't measure or use math, I just did what looked good. 

I continued to do this until the pleating reached the shoulder seam of my shirt.

  I left enough tie to extend flat along the back of the neckline and then started pleating again in the opposite direction I was before so the folds pointed up toward the shoulder from both sides of the collar.

Once I got to the end, I had to do a little readjusting to make the tie end up where I wanted to. Like I said, I didn't use math or measure, so I just did a little unpinning and repinning until it looked how I wanted it to. I pinned the pleated tie to the collar of the shirt, leaving the wide end of the tie unpinned so I could overlap at the end.

 I began sewing the tie from the end working to keep the stitch centered.

 

I sewed around the back of the shirt and stopped when I hit the second shoulder seam where I would be going back down the front of the shirt. 

 I look it off the machine and pinned the end of the tie down.

Then I began sewing again. This part requires a little patience to make sure the pleats go under the presser foot on your machine and don't bunch up. I had to do a bit of holding them firm and lifting the presser foot to make sure they would go under neatly. 

 I sewed to the end making sure it overlapped, then I was done!

The whole project took me about 30 minutes.

Here's Jamie in her CUTE shirt!