A few months ago, Logan’s school was holding a Valentine’s Day concert for the 2nd graders. The theme was Love and each student was asked to wear red. Dressing up little boys is pretty easy – throw on a button up shirt, pull on some slacks, slick back hair with gel and you’re done! I thought to myself -how can I make his outfit a bit dressier? Then I remembered a neck tie I made him a few years back with an elastic neck. The elastic was a big mistake because it had to go over his head thus ruining his hair. I am going to make him another tie but this time with Velcro to the neck straps – that way it won’t mess up his hair. I will be posting the printable template for the Adjustable Neck Tie with Velcro soon so be on the lookout for that.
For his Valentine concert, I decided to make him an adjustable bow tie. The bow required very little fabric to make so you can use whatever fabric scraps you have lying around. I also inserted a piece of fleece to make the bow kind of puffy since I was using broadcloth. If you don’t have any fleece scraps, you can use felt instead or a stiffer fabric altogether.
Let’s get started…
Things You Will Need:
Fabric of Choice (I used broadcloth)
Fleece or Felt (Optional)
Velcro
Fabric Glue (Optional)
First, I prepped my fabric by ironing it with a bit of starch (not the fleece piece) and then cut them out to the sizes below. 
Fold them in half and sew with a 1/4″ seam.
Turn them right side out. For the 2 skinny pieces, I used a safety pin to turn them right side out.
Make sure the seam for each piece is in the middle and iron them.
Next, insert the fleece into the largest piece.
Fold it in half and sew with a 1/4″ seam making sure not to sew on the fleece.
Iron the seam open and turn it right side out.
Make sure the vertical seam is in the center of the bow. When you pinch the bow in the middle, it will make little accordian pleats. Leave a little tail of thread and sew through the pleats a few times. Bring the needle back to where the thread tail is and then make a knot with it.
Now, let’s work on the neck strap – fold one end 1/4″ towards you and the other end 1/4″ away from you. Sew them down. The folded side is where we will place the Velcro later.
To attach the bow to the neck strap – find the center of the neck strap and with the seam facing you sew through the strap and also through the bow which will be placed on the blank/right side of the strap. Don’t forget to a leave a tail of thread so after sewing the bow to the strap several times, you can bring the needle back and tie it with the thread tail into a knot.
The smallest piece will be used to wrap around the bow and the neck strap. Fold the piece 1/4″ and sew it to the back of the strap – this will secure it so it won’t be moving around or rotating the seam to the front. Leave a thread tail and bring the other folded end of the piece to meet the secured end. Sew the two folded ends with an overcast or whip stitch. Bring the needle back to the tail and knot if off.
The last thing is to attach some Velcro to the straps. Cut out two Velcro strips that are .5″ x 3.5″. I don’t like sharp corners so I cut them round. Place each strip on the folded side. I used some fabric glue to keep the strip in place before sewing it down. 
Sew along the edge of the Velcro.
This is what the finished bow will look like.
This bow tie got Logan’s stamp of approval. He said it was cool and he was able to put it on all by himself!
As I’ve mentioned earlier, I’m going to make him an adjustable necktie and as I’m writing I got an idea to make the tie a 4th of July theme – tutorial coming soon for that so be sure to check back later.
