Here’s an easy and cute little project to make for a boy. I made a bow tie for my son out of a piece of felt with a velcro closure. I think it’s kinda cute.

This project used less than half of a standard size 9″ x 12″ piece of felt. There’s just a bit of measuring (the hard part!), a little folding, a couple of stitches and it was done.

Here’s what I used:

A rectangle of felt cut to 3.5 x 5″
A long strip of felt (mine was 1″ x about 13/14″)
A shorter strip of felt to fold over the bow (about 1 x 1″ will do)
About an inch of ‘sew on’ Velcro
A flexible tape measure
Needle and thread
Scissors

First, you should definitely measure around the neck of a dress shirt that fits this little somebody comfortably to get the correct size for your collar. I cut a 1″ strip of felt from my 9 x 12″ fabric but had to stitch two more inches on in the back to make it long enough to wrap around. You do NOT want this to be tight on a child’s neck!* The velcro fasten should also make it somewhat adjustable.

The one I am showing here measured at 13″ but I added another inch (14″ total) for adjustability. Unfortunately it fell a bit loose in these pictures! But better too loose than too tight.

Now that you have the right length for your collar — with a bit to spare — make your bow.

Fold the 3.5 x 5″ rectangle into thirds like this:

And this:

Now you just have to pinch it in the center a little:

Put a few stitches up through the middle of the pinched part to hold it together (they’ll be covered so it doesn’t have to look perfect).

Now you’ll be wrapping the smallest piece of felt over the middle of the pinch to make the bow tie center. Pull it snuggly and stitch together in the back of the bow, but don’t stitch it to the bow – try to make a ring around the bow. That way you can slide your collar underneath it later.

Here’s how it looks all put together from the back. (Forgive my non-perfect stitches, they don’t show!)

Now you can slide the little collar through the ring on the bow and pull it around almost all the way so that it will open and close in the front. That way little hands can easily undo their own tie if needed!

You’ll be stitching about an inch of Velcro onto each end (make sure they’ll line up to fasten!)

One here:

And one here:

And that’s my simple little bow tie. You could easily make this into a hair bow for a girl as well, without the collar part, of course.

*Even though this project is designed to be super-safe, please of course be careful when dealing with kids + something around their necks. This tie should be made to easily come open, and should be used with discretion on age appropriate kids only. Be safe!