something wilde: The Fox Says, "Nice Tie!"

Kent loves the fox! And he loves his new fox tie too! I wanted to make him a fun tie for moving up to Sunbeams at church. I made Clark a snake tie, but I wanted something different for Kent. The fox tie was born!

Would you like to make a fox tie of your own?

I started with this tie pattern at The Purl Bee. I made the tie according to the pattern all the way up to the SEW TIE section at the end. Then I added my embellishments. I kind of had to play with the lining a little to make sure I didn't sew it down, but it wasn't that difficult. I felt I had a better idea of the finished tie with the lining already sewn in. You could add your embellishments at the beginning if you wanted.

1. Start by adding two buttons for eyes.

2. Create your ears by making triangles. I used the main fabric for one side and a minky for the fur inside the ear. Clip the corner and trim the edges as shown below. **Check for the direction of your fur when you cut your triangle. Also, it may be easier to use the shape in step 3 to create your ears. Live and learn!!

3. I found this shape made more sense for how I was going to attach the ears. I didn't want to recut the ears, so I just tucked in the corners of the triangles and topstitched along the bottom so they wouldn't pop out...very technical. You probably wouldn't need to sew the bottom together if you made this shape from the beginning.

4. To give the ears a little shape, I made a fold in the center and tacked it down. This made the ears curve a little bit.

5. Place the ears on the tie. Read through step 6 so you can get a better idea of how it will look when finished. Stitch the ears fur side down. Try to keep your stitches on the ear and not over the edges. Don't you love the beauty of handmade where one ear is larger than the other!!

6. Flip the ears up and topstitch again above where the raw edges end on your ear. This will hide the raw edges for a nice finished look. Keep your stitches on the ear and not over the edges.

7. Your ears should look like this. I roughed up the fur along the topstitching so that it was less noticeable.

8. Using some embroidery floss or Pearl cotton thread, add a nose. I used a satin stitch for the nose.

9. With the same thread, add some whiskers. I used only 2 pieces of thread on each side. You can kind of pull the whiskers through. I wanted to reduce bulk with knots and things on the inside of the tie.