On the first day of the school holidays, the kids decided they wanted to stage their own wedding. I felt like sewing, and so decided to make a bow tie for Mr 5. I knew I only had a few minutes to make it, or it would spoil the enthusiasm of the moment, so while Mr 5 made sure that Miss 3 went to the toilet "so she wouldn't have to go in the middle of their wedding" and put on sufficient things to make her especially beautiful, I got to work whipping up a bow tie.
I cut two pieces of shiny fabric, one roughly 20cm x 30cm, and one roughly 10cm square. I turned the shiny side in and sewed along the length of each piece.
Turning them right side out, I sewed together the two ends of the larger piece, making a loop.
On the smaller piece, I sewed a loop of elastic, that was roughly the size of my neck (which makes a nice loose ift around Mr 5's neck + hoodie.
Keeping the elastic loop to the inside, I sewed the two ends of the smaller piece together.
Turning the smaller loop right side out, I slipped it over the larger loop, and ta-da, we have a bow tie.
The smaller loop then needs to be kept in place with a few small stitches. Ideally this would be a few nice neat hand stitches on the back side. Due to time constraints, I just put a couple of stiches through from front to back using my sewing machine. Not as elegant, but functional.
Next we needed some rings. I used a bit of aluminum foil for them.
And finally a veil. Miss 3 originally didn't want one, but seeing as I already had my sewing machine out, and had some old lace curtain at hand, complete with a seem to the top all ready for elastic to be slipped through, I thought I'd make it anyway. I cut the material with a straight top edge (pre-hemmed) straight sides, and the bottom edge in a scooped shape. The material was about 60cm wide. The elastic I cut to be roughly the same length as one of Miss 3's headbands.
I threaded the elastic through, and sewed it into a loop. Done. And I was glad I did, as Miss 3 wore it for the entire day, and every day since.
