DIY Wedding M&M: Little Boy Ties

I know, it's been a ridiculously long time since I posted anything.  Let's just say recovering from this wedding and regaining any desire to do anything has taken some time!!!

But let's talk about the wedding!  Today, I wanted to show you the ties I made for the little guys.  All the grown up men got the same awesome lavender paisley tie (I love paisley...but I didn't pick it out, yet another reason I love my new sister-in-law: she likes paisley), and I thought it would be nice for the little guys (i.e. the three nephews) to match, so I offered to make them matching ties out of grown-up ties.

So I bought two little guy tie patterns from the Little Gentleman's Closet, her bow tie and her regular tie patterns.  Michelle, the owner of this shop, is an old friend.  We met in our 7th grade music class, and I assure you, our friendship was definitely the only good thing that came out of that class!   These days she has two little boys, which inspired her to start this shop to begin with.  (You've got to check out her Halloween ties....I love them.)

Anyway, the patterns are great.  Very clear step-by-step instructions with lots of photos.  But since I was making the ties from grown-up ties, there is a couple extra steps I had to take.

One, take the ties completely apart.  Make sure you remove all threads. 

Two, iron out all the creases.

Three, I had to lay out the pattern pieces a little differently, so this is how I did it:

Other than that, I followed the instructions and they came out great.  I made two regular ties for the 4 and 5 year old nephews (my son is the 5 year old) and a bow tie for the 9 month old little guy, out of the scraps from the two other ties.

My son just finished pulling his all out of shape, so ignore his!

I was also supposed to make dresses for me and my daughter....I bought coral chiffon and white lining to make them.  I'd never sewn with chiffon previously.  It was awful.  I ended up scrapping the pattern for my dress and just making in essence a halter-style tent, which I then added white satin ribbon for the neck tie and to act as a belt over my pregnant belly, and wore a white shrug.  It actually looked pretty cute, and I wish I had a good photo to show you, but that's what you get when you're the one walking around with the camera. This is the best I have...shows my cute family, but not really my dress!

My daughter, I gave up and just made her a little bolero jacket to go over a white dress she already had.  Oh, and a cute clip using this basic method.  Of course, I have plenty of photos of her!

More wedding stuff to come, folks!