Tie by Joe

Today I have another gent-in-a-tie combo on the blog and it's not even Christmas! Let me introduce you to my friend Joe Alessi - actor, bon viveur, devoted uncle and snappy dresser. I've known him since I was 16, which will be 30 YEARS AGO this year. god that makes me feel old! Anyway, here we are in about 1987, when oversized baggy T shirts were flavour of the month…. 

…and here we are during OWOP last year outside Liberty. Thankfully we've both scrubbed up a bit in the intervening years. 

When I posted about my tie making adventures at Christmas, Joe was super keen on the idea of making a tie himself, so last week he came over for a fabulous day of sewing. And cake eating. And visiting the allotment. And looking at old maps with Jon (what is it with men and maps?!) Amidst all this high octane excitement, we did eventually find some time for tie making and let me tell you, he's a natural!  I should point out that his dad was a tailor so it's in the blood, but still, he was fab.

Pinning the pattern to the fabric - note the sophisticated pattern weights

For fabric he chose a Liberty-esque floral lawn from Classic Textiles on the Goldhawk Road. The fabric is a lovely weight, with a bit of a silky hand to it, so perfect for a tie. In fact it's much better suited than the quilting cotton I used for Jon's tie, which looked bulky by comparison. For the pattern, we used Sew Over It's Tie Making Kit, with the following small changes:

Increased the length of the back tie piece and the back lining piece by 10cms. This matched the length of a RTW tie Joe had brought along for comparison. 

Decreased the width of the back neck section by about 5mm on either side, as it overlapped his shirt collar. Well, we drew the changes onto the pattern, but were too busy chatting to actually cut along the lines. Whoops! It's a change he can implement on his next tie in any case!

First seam!

Here it is later, all pressed and gorgeous

We'd ran out of domette, which is the special tie lining that comes with the kit, so improvised and used a double layer of cotton flannel instead. Personally, I think the flannel is an improvement as it's not quite as springy as the domette. Pressing the tie into shape around the lining is the only slightly tricky part of the whole proceedings. You've got to line it up perfectly in order to get that central line down the back of the tie. Look at that furrowed brow concentrating! If he was a toddler he'd have his tongue sticking out.

By the time Joe left, all he had to do at home was invisibly catchstitch the central back seam, which he did beautifully.

Look! A 'Tie by Joe' label.  I'm not going to lie, when he sent me the final photos of his tie, all perfectly stitched and labelled, I totally blubbed (it doesn't take much!) Just look at it though - it wouldn't look out of place in Liberty or Paul Smith, I'm so bloody proud of him! He's got fabric to make more ties and when he posted these photos on Twitter his friends were lining up to place orders! I'm not surprised, I think this is the start of a wonderful tie empire. Remember, you saw it here first!  x

Mr Dapper