For my grandfather’s birthday, I made him a tie. The actual sewing of it was fairly simple (no complicated seams or sleeves or buttonholes!) but I had a little trouble getting my head around the repeating pattern. There were a few false starts before I got it right.

Here’s the original pattern. All the little caricatures are based on pets my grandfather has owned. The ginger cat, Biscuit, originally smiled like the rest, but my mum thought it was uncharacteristic of him.

And here’s the finished tie! The print and colour reproduction was actually excellent – my photographs don’t show it very well. I had the fabric printed with Bags of Love and used an excellent free tutorial and pattern from Sweet Shop Sewing.