Old Timer's Habits: Fixing a tie that went through the Wash

All Tied up

I have been told you should not wash ties in the washing machine. Occasionally I have accidentally washed one of my husband’s ties in the laundry and seen why. The material for the tie gets slightly dull, it snags, the shape of the tie can be lost, or it starts to come apart at the seams. These things happen for various reasons for example, the material on the outside of the tie is delicate; silk, ramie polyester, wool, acetate, rayon, nylon, cotton, mesh, plastic, and linen are some I have seen. Each of these materials would not do well at holding their shape if they didn’t have a lining; it would be like a Tipi without lodge poles, it just would not hold its shape. The lining of the ties I have had to repair have been wool, muslin and a type of canvas material, none of which do well with washing either. Then there is the construction; companies who make ties, professional seamstresses or tailors all seem to agree that the best results come from hand sewing it together. Here is why I think this might be; regardless of whether you use the Half Windsor, Windsor, Trinity, Eldredge or some other kind of knot it requires your material to be able to slide and adjusts to all the tugging, yanking and maneuvering that it is put threw. If you were to machine sew the whole tie, you would end up with your lining shifting inside the tie and your tie will not lay flat when you are done. If you machine sew a part of it, you will have less problems, your tie might end up with a funny edges that look slightly curled after a while. The completely hand sewn tie has the flexibility to adjust its thread because it has been stitched together tightly enough to stay together to hold shape but loosely enough to move with the flipping and pulling that happens and then pull back flat as it is tugged flat across the torso. However, if it is hand sewn it may eventually come apart, a thread breaks or maybe as it loosens it snags on a button but so does the machine sewn tie.

I understand you are not supposed to machine wash ties and it even makes sense. However, I have two sons who wear ties at once a week for church. One of them will get something on their tie that requires it to be cleaned. So I wash their ties in the washing machine because I can’t afford to keep taking their ties to the cleaners. This means their ties come apart and need fixing but they are clean, which is a trade off I am willing to make.

In this case I am repairing a store bought tie my sister-in-law bought my oldest son for Christmas.

The tie has already come apart at the seams and the lining had somehow been put in a knot.

Step#1

I untied the knot in the lining.

Step#2

I noticed that the lining had stretched out so I sewed down the extra to fit the shape and size of the tie. I didn’t cut the extra in case the tie lining happens to shrink in the future or get torn somehow. The extra material will allow for possible repairs in the future, I do have little boys.

Step#3