Two Very Different Ties; Two Very Happy Guys

Cidell wasn't the only one making ties for guys this Christmas, but this was no seven fold tie.

Rob, my high school freshman, goes to an all boys' school with a dress code. He must wear a tie every day. I guess, after two years, this becomes boring. Rob requested a Sponge Bob light up tie. I love a sewing challenge. Of course I could make one!

We searched for small lights, which we found at the grocery store. Wegmans never fails! We considered a small necklace with lights from Hallmark, but this much larger string cost the same amount, and Rob felt it was more obnoxious, thus good. For someone who desires a more subdued light up tie, the necklace would have been nice. We bought the fabric using the yardage amount from a tie pattern I've had for thirty years. Yes, when my husband attended this same school, I was dating him and made him a tie! So I guess this is a second generation tie.

I ended up not using the pattern, though. I took an old tie and opened it for the interfacing. I sewed the lights by hand onto the interfacing.

That's when I realized that it would be much easier to just use the old tie for a pattern. My plan was to make circular buttonholes to slide the lights through. Um, bad idea. There was no way I could place the button holes correctly, so I fused interfacing onto the tie front and planned to make small slits, slide the lights through, and use glue stuff to seam them. Um, bad idea. After three holes, I determined that I still couldn't line up the holes. They were too big and raggedy, and the tie was looking bad.

I was very distressed, but for some reason, I just flipped the lights on. They looked great inside the tie! I interfaced the holes I'd made, glued them, and I sewed the tie closed. Success!

I can see in the picture that the little pocket that holds the battery pack is peaking out. I'll cinch in the top of that. The lights don't show in the picture, but they blink. I can just imagine Rob's teachers saying with a big sigh, "Rob, turn your tie off."

He's very happy. He's already decided on the next tie he wants: an Advent tie. It would have four candles, and each week of Advent he'd light another one. He knows how hard it would be for the teachers at a Catholic school to tell him to turn off his Advent lights!