Meet my new best friend/Halloween decor!
He's made out of scary neckties! He's low-sew or no-sew (glue works, too!) The label that serves as his mouth reveals the source of the blue tie: Sears/The Men's Store, I'm guessing circa 1968. The red tie is strewn with San Francisco cable cars! Both ties are so bad, they're great!
He's posing with HIS new best friend, a crocheted pumpkin
of yore. Unlike the crochet, he is so fast and so undoable! If ultra-wide, terrifying neckties ever come back into fashion, it's very easy to take him apart, and wind up with two intact separate neckties! (Unless you used glue.)
Can you stand it? Let's begin!
1. Obtain two horrible, wide, neckties. Use a seam ripper to carefully remove the label from at least one if you will be using it as a mouth (or other feature.)
2. Starting is the hard part. Fold the left necktie (blue) over on top of itself as shown. Place the right necktie (red) underneath it, and bring the short end down on top of the folded blue tie.
Arrange the short/narrow ends like this:
Pull the long end of the red tie over its short end...
...Smush that red tie into the blue hole, and pull up a loop of red tie.
Now pull the long end of the blue tie to the right, make a loop, and insert it in the red loop. Pull the loop of blue tie out, and adjust as needed so the front of the tie faces outward.
Bring the red tie up and pull through another loop, and adjust so front of it shows...
...and bring a blue loop through the red loop. Keep alternating until you're almost out of necktie ends. You want enough leftover to serve as arms, plus a nice generous head. (Unless you prefer the Doc Ock look with long arms and a tiny head, like this:)
Below are the proportions that worked out on my first try. I took it out and redid it a few times - the proportions of head/arms/legs changed with each try!
Once you like it, you could leave him without any facial features, for a kind of Amish look. Or sew on two buttons for eyes. Embellish more! Go wild! I used the label as a mouth, but a label could also serve as a monobrow, or maybe even hair!
Something else I could have done was to sew up the sides of the head leaving a small gap, and stuff it. That would round off the head.
On the red tie, I left the label in its original position, on the leg.
I love old necktie labels - the vintage typeface, the graphics. Is this store still in San Francisco? I googled it, but could only find Jethro Tull, whose members would never have worn this tie.
I had so much fun with doll #1` that I pulled out two even WORSE neckties from my stash, and made this:
The top of the label says "A Wemlon Fabric." Here's a more readable view:
Have you ever heard of Wemlon? Me neither, so I googled it. Turns out to be a euphemism for polyester. Many vintage Wembley ties can be purchased online. On bottom, there's what appears to be garment selection advice: "For brown, olive, or blacks." At least I hope it's garment advice, and not complexion-based advice.
I hung from a fence pole, with a string through his head. Gravity gave him kitty ears.
I like the tie ends flapping in the breeze! Perfect for Halloween! Have fun with this idea! If you don't have enough ugly neckties - take heart - plenty of vintage Wemlon ties are sold online.
P.S. From my archives, more ultra-fast low-to-no-sew fabric Halloween decor - wrapped fabric pumpkins - are
here.
(Why, you may ask, do I have so many hideous neckties in my stash? They're leftover from my comprehensive history-of-neckties
quilt!)
