Sewing for boys series: Formal wear

If you’ve been following me, you’ll know that I’m a sucker for a well dressed little boy. Today we’re going to look at how to create items such as a bow tie and shorts to turn your little man into an extremely dapper young gentleman.

I’ve already shared my story into making bow ties here; these are by far my most popular items in my shop, and you just have to look at photos of little boys dressed up in bow ties to see why.

This was the first time that I had thought to make some matching shorts to go with a bow tie because, to be honest, I thought that making dressy shorts would be fairly tricky and it was easier just to buy some.

That was until I came across this (free!) Sunny Day Shorts pattern by Oliver and S. It is such a comprehensive pattern, and very easy to follow – I couldn’t believe that it was free, I would pay for this pattern as it was so good. I added pockets to mine, but even the non pocket version would look super cute. I probably wouldn’t recommend this for a complete beginner, but they certainly weren’t too hard to make and didn’t take long.

With a project like this, I completely believe that fabric choice plays a massive part. With a bow tie, you don’t want something with a large pattern as that will be completely lost when the bow tie is folded; I think the shorts would look a lot less dressy also if they had a bold pattern on them. The fabric I used was a 100% cotton called Raindrop Geo Drops in Denim Gray by Cotton + Steel. I am a big fan of Cotton + Steel fabrics, their quality is amazing and they have so many gorgeous fabric designs. This was purchased from Sew Yeah Fabrics.

Are you ready to make your own cute set? I’d love to see what you make so feel free to comment below with either a link to your photo, or send me an email.

I have also started taking custom orders for these bow tie and shorts sets, so if you’re not confident to make your own just contact me and I can give you more info.

Boy’s Bow Ties

If there’s anything that tops a well dressed Gentleman, it’s a well dressed little boy!

I have been making bow ties for little boys for the past few months, ranging from newborn up to 6 years old. It absolutely makes my day every time I’m sent a photo of one of these little men all dressed up in their bow ties and looking so ADORABLE!

I first had the idea to introduce bow ties into my shop at the start of the year as I had bought a shirt and bow tie set for Cooper, but the bow tie was so flimsy and felt like it would fall apart in no time. And – I mused – boys need some cool accessories too!

I immediately began trawling the internet for tutorials, patterns and ideas on how to actually make one (do you like my confidence about planning to sell something I hadn’t made yet?!) but I wasn’t happy with any of them. I even downloaded a pattern that I thought would be great, but the finished result – which was meant to be “one size fits all” didn’t even fit around my then 15 month old’s collar!

So there began much research into collar sizes of shirts ranging from 000 up to size 6, and plenty of texting friends and family with strange requests of “Can you please measure your son’s shirt collar for me …” of which they all happily obliged! As a result, I could offer bow tie sizes of newborn to size 0, and size 1-6 with total confidence that they would actually fit.

Then came the bow part of the pattern. I decided that I needed to have a tri-fold to give it extra thickness and the authentic look of how a bow tie actually looks once tied (my husband gave me this advice!).

So there you have it, the Lime Hippo bow tie was born. I am so happy that I put in that time and effort, because I have had countless feedback on how well made and sturdy our bow ties are — which is very important in the hands of little boys!