Finish Sewing the Facing on a Six Fold Tie

The last of the tricky parts is to sew the sides of the facing down. After you invert the facing, you see the position of the fabric as it should be when its done. The folds around the tip are pressed down. At this point, it is important to mark where the fabric should line up. When you uninvert the facing to sew it, the facing will not naturally sit at this same position.


Marking where the facing will line up
I mark the position by simply trimming either the extended tabs of the facing or the base section to match the other.


Uninvert facing and hold position with pins
Line up the bottom of the tabs so that everything will invert correctly. Keep this position by inserting silk pins so that it will not move when you make the seam.


Sew the facing to the base section
Now that the position is set, the next detail to check is that your stitch line is in line with the rest of the tie. These need to be in line so that after its inverted, it will appear as if its one uniform piece of silk from the front side.


Tricky part
I begin sewing from where the bottom of the tabs to make sure everything stays lined up. When you move towards the tip of the tie, you will notice that there is extra fabric on the facing side. This determines what the two corners on the inside of the tie look like. Make sure that the side edges of the facing and base section stay parallel. Otherwise the edge will be curved when you invert it. Do not let the fabric bunch up until after you sew over the stitches you made earlier. Then simply fold the extra fabric down towards the tip and sew it down. All of this should be done in one line.


Example of corner when stitched wrong
There is all sorts of wrong with this corner. The stitching is what made that ugly fold above the corner. The seam is also no where near the edge, its 2cm from it. UUUUUUGLY!


Stitches of correctly sewn corner
This is how everything should look when you are done sewing the facing onto the base section


Invert and press
After inverting it, you will need to push out the corners and edges so that everything lines up evenly. The edges next to the tip should be as they were when you first pressed them. The other two edges need to be pressed such that the seam is at the every edge and unseen.


Double Check Symmetry
The last thing you can do is to double the check and make sure that the end is symmetrical. With the six fold, the left side is suppose to match the right side. This will make the folds much easier and will result in a even tie. Obviously mine didnt turn out this way. It just means that the folds will have to be adjusted so that the end result is a symmetrical tie from the front. But when opened up, you will see that one side doesnt get folded as far on the inside.

Sewing the Tip of a Six Fold Tie

Making the tip is one of the two tricky sections in attaching the facing to the rest of the tie in a six fold. The most important part of the tip is the point where facing is attched to the rest of the tie initially. Each seam that sewn start from this point.

Connect Facing to base section.
This is the important inital point that determines where the tip of the tie will be once it is inverted. The facing and the base section will be folded in half with the display side of the silk facing each other. The edges should line up when folded with the point of the facing touching the corner of the base section, not the folded mid point. Just sew this part by hand inserting the needle at the sew line where it will just hit edge of the facing where it is folded.

Another view of initial connecting stitch
When you open it up, this is how it will look on the side of the facing.

Reinforce hand stitch with sewing machine
On the side where the main section of the tie is, there is an extra section that you will sew closed. The stitch on the right side was done by hand just to keep it closed. I then went over it with a sewing machine. (I cant sew straight, but the machine can) Make sure you dont pull out the initial stitch you did by hand because it has the vital connection between the base section and the facing. (Ignore the fact that i already sewed the edge in this pic)

Sew edges touching the tip of tie
Now we need to sew the two edges. Fold over the extra little flap so that you dont sew it down to the rest of the tie. It needs to stay up. Then start sewing from the vital point where the base section connects to the facing. You will sew all the way until the end of the base section. The facing will be a little longer now. Repeat this for the other side starting at the same point and making sure to not sew the extra little flap down.

Sew edge until base section ends.

Snip extra fabric at the tip.
Now that the edges are sewn, you can trim down the fabric at the very tip. This will help make the tip when you invert the fabric. Just make sure you dont cut too much or else your stitches will fall out and youll have a hole instead of a tip.

Invert the tip.
Invert the section you just sewed and iron it flat. The tip will naturally want to fold down to a certain length depending on how well you sewed the edges and lined everything up. The next part will be to sew the right and left sides down. Minor adjustments can be made at this point to ensure that this section will still remain nice and flat after sewing the sides and inverting it again. Thatll be in the next post.

A Well Constructed Six Fold

Making a necktie look good from the front is relatively easy. Just make sure that it is symmetrical and comes to a nice even point at the bottom. You only have to get the fat end right too. If the tail of the tie is a mess, no one will know. So aside from just making it look nice in the front, we need to make the craftsmanship stunningly precise from the back.

First off, we need to know what we are trying to accomplish. What does perfect six fold tie look like from the back?

Perfectly symmetrical with the corners matching up. This example is a little flawed since the right side is slightly higher than the left.

Hidden corners from the hidden folds match up as well. When opened up, the inner folds should also line up evenly on along the centerline of the tie.

Tail of the necktie flares out with symmetrical matching corners. The tail section isnt cut so that it folds into a flare naturally, it is a result of the folding.

The inner folds of the tail are symmetrical just like at the head.

Inner most edge does not overlap on either side. After attaching the facing and flipping it inside out, this is how the edge should look.

The facing does not bunch up when flipped inside out. If the facing is not sewn to the base section of the tie, it will cause the facing to bunch up when flipped inside out. The width where the base section overlaps onto the back side should be the same distance on the left and right.

The six fold does not take as long to make as the seven fold, but is a bit trickier because it is self tipped. You need to know how the folds work and where the stitches are after flipping it inside out. If you follow the lines on the pattern exactly, there should be no problem. But if your stitches are off, it can still be easily corrected if you understand which part needs to be proportional. I will cover these proportions and give tips in the next few posts.