Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend! I have some great photos of my girls in their dresses that I am dying to share – but, since it is late we will go with a backup today! Keep in mind, this is not a second-rate project – this pattern is really well put together and very on trend!

Angela Osborn’s Bow Tie Pattern

My husband suggested (last week, while I was sewing Easter dresses) that I should undertake another project. I have to say, this was met with a bit of reluctance at first (another project? while I am sewing dresses that I am late on and HAVE to be done by Thursday?!) – until I heard what he wanted me to make. Our good friend’s birthday was on Wednesday of last week and my husband wanted me to make him a bow tie. So – in the middle of making dresses – all else was put aside and I found a great free pattern and stitched up a lovely blue one.

Angela’s pattern is very thorough, she includes a wonderful illustrated sewing glossary at the beginning – so even if you don’t make the bow tie you can definitely benefit from reading that. The pdf download is easy to follow and includes great photos to illustrate the directions. She also includes two ways of making the tie. Since it has to be cut on the bias so it has some stretch and is more comfortable for the wearer, it uses up quite a bit of fabric. Angela’s instructions include a pattern piece that has a seam in the centre back (where it won’t show) so you can use half as much fabric – hooray!

Though she says to print this on legal size paper, I printed mine on letter size and it turned out just fine, but I think some of her other patterns may use up more space on the page than the bow tie.  Check out her Esther blouse and Marion skirt patterns. I am sure they are just as well put together. She is located in Australia, so she includes a great sizing chart on her website.

When you have finished making your bow tie head over to Art of Manliness and print out an illustrated copy of “How to Tie a Bow Tie”. Wrap up the printout with your bow tie and give it to someone special! See you soon, I think, with the dress photos (for those of you who didn’t get a sneak peek on Twitter!). The girls had a great time with the photo shoot as usual.

(By the way – Walter the hedgehog says he is glad to have his photo posted. And thanks to Ben for being a good sport and letting us take his picture too!)