How to Tie a Bow Tie

A simple process, known by few. But HEY! Robot knows!

Don't know how to tie a bow tie? I didn't either, and you can tell by the look on my face how dissapointed I was. But then I learned, and now I wear bow ties all the time.

First lets talk about the bow tie's shape a little so you know whats going on in the later steps of the instructable. Most people have their idea of what a bow tie looks like; just a funny little piece of cloth that is tapered in the middle and wide on the outsides. Robot's bow tie shows just that, but what most people do not realize is that there are actually two of those shapes back to back and reversed, forming the bow tie's shape. This is shown in the picture, from a view of the bottom of a tied bow tie.

To begin, for clarities sake, instead of saying right side and left side of the bow tie, which could easily become confusing, I will refer to the different sides of the bow tie as "the striped side" and "the polka dotted side." I choose this tie for that reason, and if you have trouble understanding, go out and get a bow tie with two different color sides, or one with different patterns like mine. That should make it much easier.

Now that thats clear, lets begin.

After laying the bowtie around your neck, bring the striped side OVER the polka dotted side.

Then loop it under the polka dotted side like you would begin tying your shoe.

Now let the striped side rest on your shoulder.

With your free hands, grab the polka dotted half and form the first "bow" shape.

While holding your polka dotted bow in place, grab the striped side of the tie and bring it over the middle of the polka dotted bow.

As you bring the striped piece down, a hole will form between the polka dotted and striped pieces of material. Make sure you keep a finger inside of that hole that was created. It should be in the rear of the tie next to your neck.

Next, bring the striped side around the bottom of the bow tie and push it through the hole made by your finger. Make sure that you push a doubled up piece of the striped cloth through to form a loop.

Now pull the striped end through the hole, making the loop larger. In this step, you need to be careful that you do not pull the loop too far, which would result in a big messy knot around your neck.

Now the knot is complete, and all you need to do is adjust each part of the bow. The loops and flaps can be pulled and moved, forming a straight and neat looking bow tie.

As you can see, this way of tying the bow tie results in both sides of the bow tie being present in the final product. If you look at the picture, the wings are made of the polka dots, while the center piece is made of stripes. This way of tying allows both patterns to show, which is very snazzy, and looks great with a dual pattern or dual color bow tie.

There is another way I know to tie the bow tie, that I will publish soon, and its a bit easier, so be on the lookout.

Way #2 is here so check it out. It's a bit easier, but doesn't produce the double patterned effect like this method does.