Hello sweet ones!

First of all, I’m sorry for my lengthy absence from the site. It’s been an insanely busy couple of weeks with sewing-unrelated tasks (mostly PhD stuff, now that I’m coming up to my final year!!). I’ve barely even glanced in the direction of my machine, which should tell you something. Fortunately, I have a trip to the US coming up this week and will be with family for a month. I’m hoping that will give me some time to recuperate and tackle my backlog of sewing projects,

That said, I have one project in particular that I’ll be dealing with over the next couple of days – my first, albeit easy, venture into the world of menswear. As a birthday surprise for my little brother (I say little but he’s only 18 months younger than me), I’ve decide to whip up a couple of bow ties.* As you might have guessed from this, I’m not the only member of my family with a love of vintage style – my little bro has a definite penchant for a good looking neck tie and matching pocket square. So I figured that my sewing skills could be put to use in making him something unique (not to mention that it saves this impoverished student a few pounds).

After a bit of online venturing, I found a couple of fabrics that I love and should suit the summer in New York vibe that my brother will get to enjoy in a couple of months!

I’ve done a bit of searching around and have found a couple of free bow tie patterns that look reliable. However, I’ve struggled to find a detailed step-by-step guide for putting the bow tie together. So I’m planning on putting a tutorial up on here – logging my successes and (hopefully not too many) failures. This promises to be a quick and relatively easy make that could be a great option for anyone looking to create something for birthday or christmas presents. So I will return shortly with some tips and lessons learnt.

And just to prove that my brother has been a lover of bow ties since his infancy, enjoy this adorable photo of him with my dad!

* This post is a testament to my conviction that my brother doesn’t read Sew for Victory. But obviously, if you know him, don’t give me away!