I have got a treat for you! It’s a free bow tie PDF pattern and instruction booklet that I made. Suitable for beginners, this bow tie is easy to sew and would make a lovely Valentine’s Day gift for the man in your life. To access the free pattern, click on the Free Patterns icon in my shop, select the bow tie and in the description you will see two links. Open them both (in new tabs or windows) to download the files. I have made a few of these for Matt and he loves them. I think this gingham one is my favourite!
It can take a bit of practise to get the hang of tying a bow tie, so if you haven’t done it before, check out YouTube for video tutorials. If you make a bow tie using my pattern, I would love to know about it! You can let me know in the comments or even email me a picture! You don’t have to, of course, I just love hearing about what people make with my patterns. 
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I have a helpful hint that others might find useful. When pinning a pattern with a narrow section, such as the back of the bowtie, pins can distort the fabric. I traced your pattern onto freezer paper, using carbon paper to trace the arrows. Now I can iron the freezer paper pattern onto my fabric for cutting with no distortion or slipping. This easily peels off and can be reused a number of times before you need to trace a new one. Barb
Wow, what a great idea! Thanks for sharing your helpful hint.
I can’t download the pattern from your shop. When I click to “buy” it, the only available payment option is PayPal. PayPal won’t let you make a purchase for $0.00.
Hi Allison, to access the bow tie pattern you don’t need to add it to the shopping bag or proceed through the checkout at all. Click on the Shop tab. Click on the free patterns section of my shop (has a photo of a meerkat softie). Click on bow tie pattern, beneath the description of the bow tie there are two links, one called Bow Tie Pattern and the other called Bow Tie Instructions. Click on each link to automatically download the PDF files. I hope this helps and let me know if you have any more difficulties.
Hi!
A lot if people are having trouble with the finished product’s length.
When I print out my pattern, for a 17″ neck as you said, the total
length (after the “( )( )” bow shape) is 17″.
Every bow tie pattern I’m seeing says to add 5-5.5 inches to your neck size if NOT cutting on the bias. IE: if you’re NOT cutting diagonally ACROSS the fabric.
Can I assume folks not cutting diagonally across the fabrics are having these issues? Or perhaps their fabric is not that stretchy? I’m thinking so long as your fabric will stretch a total of 5-5.5″ when cut on the bias OR adding 5-5.5″ to a non stretchy fabric you will not run into these problems.
Please let me know if I’m correct in saying this
This tutorial is SO rad and customizable to boot!
Try doing a pattern on one side and a solid colour on the opposite. It’s a 2-fer-1!
Hi Caitlin, thanks for your comment. People will definitely encounter problems if they don’t cut the tie on the bias, however if think some people may be encountering problems when printing the pattern. Unfortunately it is hard to pin point a problem without seeing exactly what people are doing. The pattern to make the tie without a centre back seam (i.e. cutting the tie in one long piece) comprises of four pattern pieces: A, B, C & D which when taped together, before being pinned to fabric should measure about 85 cm (33.5″). It is really quite long! The length between the two “()” bow shapes should be a bit over 51 cm (20″), so I”m not sure why yours is only 17″. I am wondering whether this sizing problems occur if the pattern isn’t printing to scale, or if there are compatibility issues with printing patterns in countries that don’t use A4 sized paper (there is a note on paper size in the instructions). I hope this helps and I love your suggestion about combining a pattern and solid colour on the one tie!
I am going to be making one of these. When it is cut on the bias should I be using interfacing?
Yes, but the interfacing also needs to be cut on the bias.
Angela,
Thank you for this pattern! I can’t wait to try it out! Reading through the comments before I began printing, I saw that several people said the pattern was too small. I saw the problem instantly when I hit print. Adobe Reader’s print command default is set to “Shrink oversized pages.” Just clicking on “Print actual size” will take care of the sizing problems! If in doubt, your handy dandy scale on the top of the first page provides assurance we’ve printed it correctly (or not!). You are so generous to share this with us!
On a personal note, enjoyed browsing around your blog. I’m impressed that you’re so young and have such impressive sewing skills. I learned to sew thanks to a home economics class in high school (sadly, not required any more and wasn’t even offered in my daughter’s high school) and my also patient grandmother. It seems few have the desire to learn these wonderfully useful and fun skills anymore! I love how your mom used gingham to teach you to sew straight lines. What a great idea!
Thanks again from a Yank, who would love to visit you in Australia one day!
Hi Vicki
Yes, clicking “print actual size” is crucial to get the pattern to print correctly. Thank you so much for your kind words, it really means a lot to me. I’m always interested to hear how other people have learnt to sew. These sorts of skills aren’t so common anymore. I derive such joy from making things so it’s my hope to encourage people to have a go so they too can discover how much fun it is.