Silk Ties

While watching the Olympics I have been ccupying my hands with many tasks. One that I've been working on today is disassembeling old silk ties. Some are from my Dad's collection, some are from thrift stores and some are from another member of the wearables group of the Kingwood Area Quilt Guild. We have set ourselves a challenge to create something from old ties. I decided that I did not need to leave the ties in one piece thus the mess of ties bites all over my house. I expect to use the bits and pieces in a few crazy patch inserts in purses or handbags.

While covering myself and the dogs in all sorts of bits of thread I remembered that one of our group makes little shoulder bags and clutch style purses out of whole ties. Abandoning my ripping apart, I went to the sewing machine and this is what I came up with:

I used three ties, squared them up as much as I could, used decorative stitches to bind things together, added some velcro as a closure, added a small interior pocket and sewed up the sides. I then took some of the leftover silk to construct a flower and bound that together with some grossgrain ribbon. Fabri-Tac, my favorite flexible glue, holds the rose together and attaches it to the clutch flap.

This was fun to put together but it doesn't meet my, admittedly low, standards for something I would actually use. If I try this again I think I would choose my ties more carefully. The ones I used were of three different thicknesses which made for some unevenness in the sewing. I would definitely stabilize the ties in some way so that they don't slip around as easily and, they might square up more easily as well. I would definitly add a lining and probably rethink my closure choice. Definitily something to make for a funky gift or something to sell in a bazaar.

Fun while the women's marathon grinds on. Still another hour to go. How do they do it?