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.