Converting a fat tie to a skinny tie

[Tobus]

I had a couple of free hours over the weekend and decided to have another go at narrowing one of my 4" fat ties down to the same 2.5" width. I used the same process as before with a little more care in the stitching, and the results were great. It took less time too, now that I am more comfortable with the process.

On this one, though, I shortened the length on the small tail end as well. I took off about 4" in length so I can easily tie a Four-in-Hand knot without the tail being too long. I dislike being forced into a Half-Windsor or a Full-Windsor knot just to use up extra tie length. Even on some of my ties that I'm comfortable with the width, I will want to shorten them. So I wanted to figure out an easy way to do it that didn't require removal and replacement of the silk backing liner.

To shorten the tail without complicated tailoring, I removed the grey silk liner by cutting out the stitches and folded the striped outer silk back on itself. Then I carefully folded this into a point around the inner canvas stiffener (which I had cut back in length and shaped to a V-point). The folding of the outer silk was actually very similar to making a paper airplane. Once I pressed these folds to hold their shape, I unfolded it and cut away the extraneous material to reduce bulk. Then I closed it back up, did a final closure bar stitch as usual, as well as a whip-stitch to ensure that the folds stay closed.

That was probably a confusing description, so here's a photo. The result is satisfactory for my purposes, since the backside of the tail isn't visible when wearing.