Day 16: Gingerbread Boy Ties

I wanted to make something for my boy's Christmas outfits, even if they are past smocking and overalls (boo hoo). My first inspiration came in September when I happened upon these wonderful plaid shirts at Walmart. I snatched them up for $9 each and felt ahead of the game!

I thought about vests, but then I decided to embroider ties!

I bought the ties on Amazon for $7/each. They are the French Toast Brand school uniform and I got a 4-7 and an 8-16. They have velcro straps around the neck.

I did Andy's first (little guy) and I don't know what I was thinking. I guess I was NOT thinking, because I just took the whole tie and stuck it in the hoop. Well, I was embroidering through at least 12 layers. It was a mess. My thread broke many times. I barely finished it and if you look closely, half a green bow tie is absent on the top boy.

Davy's tie next. He really wanted the Santa driving a dragon across the moon that I did last year on Pete's Stocking. But I had to find something really tall and skinny. The ties only had 2" clearance at the widest point. I found this Gingerbread Boy stack at Embroidery Library.

I got smart on this tie and cut off some of the thickness in back and moved aside the tie's "tail". Now I was only going through 2 layers and it went much better!

Here's Davy's tie. The same embroidery, but I swapped the colors of the gingerbread boys.

Here's a side-by-side comparison. So, then we went for pictures. I already shared the family picture with our "Merry Christmas" shirts!

Here's the picture of the kids that shows the ties the best. We got several excellent shots!

I told the older kids "anything red or green." The balance worked out wonderfully!!