The Sew and Tell Project

I’m sure many of you have seen Eleri’s beautiful series on making her daughter’s First Communion dress from her mother’s wedding gown. If you haven’t, make sure to go check out the series here, here, and here.

My oldest son makes his First Communion in a few short weeks, and I wanted to make him something that he could have as a keepsake of this special sacrament. After thinking through my options (because it’s much harder for me to think of things to make for boys!) I chose to make him a tie from the shawl of my wedding dress. I am so thankful I had my wedding dress preserved after our wedding 10 years ago. I removed my shawl and was able to steam the wrinkles from it before I cut out the tie.

After cutting out the tie, I realized that I wanted to personalize it somehow. I consulted with Selena from Little Punkin’s Boutique who does custom embroidery. She worked with me to find a chalice design that I liked. Working with her was a pleasure, and her turnaround time was quite fast. I absolutely love the finished embroidery. I also have enough left of my shawl to make ties from my other three boys, and she is going to do the same embroidery on them for me.

I used the Little Gentleman’s Tie from Peekaboo Pattern Shop to make the tie. This tie comes in sizes from baby to tween as well as including patterns for a regular bow tie, a stacked bow tie, and a regular neck tie! I used the child size to make the tie for my almost 9 year old. I believe the tween size would have worked as well (especially if he needed a tie that he could wear for several years), but since he’ll only wear this once, the child size worked well. The only alterations I made from the pattern was to add 3 inches to the strap length so that I could use a bow tie kit from Joann Fabrics to fasten the band in the back.

As all the patterns from Peekaboo Pattern Shop are, this pattern was easy to follow and a fairly quick sew! My favorite part is that it ties around a neck strap so you just have to tie it once and leave it. Tying ties on my boys is not one of my favorite things so I am glad I only have to do it once.

I love how my son will forever have a piece of my wedding shawl as a special memento of his First Communion. I wanted to have a special card to put with this tie as a keepsake, so I ended up ordering a custom one from Kathleen over at Kscaswell. Kathleen makes beautiful printable cards customized to your occasion. Here’s the one I’ve chosen for my son’s First Communion.

In addition to printable cards, she can create a variety of things that help you bring focus on your faith into your home. I’m impressed with the high quality of the card and am looking forward to my next order from Kathleen. I think this little beauty would look lovely in my family room.

Thanks for joining me to see how I’m making my oldest’s First Communion special for our family with a heirloom tie. I hope you all have a wonderful Easter. Stay tuned next week for some big and exciting news and a new tutorial perfect for summer!