The Ties that Bind

          

  Ed was a pastor who seldom wore a tie. He owned ties but believed in a more casual appearance. He didn’t want people to feel like they couldn’t attend church if they didn’t have nice “church clothes”. He always prescribed to the “come as you are” philosophy.

            However, he often sported a tie when officiating a wedding or funeral, or some other more serious event. He had a small variety of his favorites. Most of his ties were the plain red, the plain blue or black, and a couple with stripes. He might have had few varieties so as not to interfere with his partial color blindness, I am not sure.

            Either way, he had his more professional and versatile plain color ties, and then he had the ties that more reflected his personality. His Snoopy and Charlie Brown tie, his Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse and two Looney Tunes ties brandishing Bugs Bunny, Wiley E Coyote, Road Runner, Tweety Bird, and other characters not appropriate for more somber events as a wedding or a funeral.

            He wore those at more relaxed times, where Ed’s humorous side blossomed from underneath. He was relatable and fun, not taking himself too seriously. Those were the ties that epitomized Ed.

            After he passed away, with everything I learned about repurposing items and memorial creations, I kept thinking about those ties. I felt compelled to create something as memorable as Ed. However, I wanted something useful. The last thing I wanted was to take a stack of ties and reduce them to something that sat in a closet somewhere.

I searched online and found a variety of things made from ties—purses, quilts, tree skirts, pillows, and even a bear! And although all these things are good purposes for old ties, I wanted to create something different, something unique while still honoring Ed.

One day while searching I found an adorable tie pillow with a poem on it. The diagonal design was unique, and one corner was a contrasting plain white with a poem embroidered on it.

I searched for a pattern for that pillow but was unable to find one. In fact, after more than an hour of searching, I lost the original picture.

            For several days I earnestly searched for that original picture with different combinations of words: tie pillow, diagonal tie pillow, necktie pillow… I finally discovered it again and immediately saved the picture.

I had it!

It apparently belonged to someone from the United Kingdom that sold the single pillow. I did not find one in the U.S., and I could not find any instructions or a pattern for making it.

            I found a couple of videos on making a tie pillow and watched one that explained not only how to take apart the ties, but also how to prepare and sew them. I decided to use those instructions and attempt to create my own pillow as close to the picture as possible.

I enjoyed reminiscing about these particular ties. Ed had a passion for comics and drawing, and these different cartoon characters he had probably drawn at one point or another!

I know he led a class on drawing Mickey Mouse and Snoopy decades ago! He was a favorite art teacher at the school because he taught the kids how to draw not only the favorite mouse, but other cartoon characters as well.

As the pillow came together, I was very happy with how it turned out! It wasn’t perfect, since I didn’t have instructions or a pattern, I was almost making it up as I went along.

I wrote the poem I embroidered on the pillow. I did not want to include the poem on the picture I found, as I felt like that was infringing on that person’s intellectual property.

And really, I felt like my own poem would add to the memorial creation.

The poem I wrote in final form was:

The ties that bind,

Your heart to mine.

My Dad, my friend,

Love without end.

 

I was incredibly excited to complete that pillow. It was not without its faults though, and I had several things I would change if I could do it over.

One thing, I have the ties upside down on the back, and at one point I somehow nicked the white cotton on front. I had to add a few stitches and iron on stabilizer to keep it closed.

            And I should have bought a square plastic ruler in the beginning. I tried to use a cardboard template, but that didn’t work. Once I decided I really needed the plastic, square ruler, it was instrumental in confirming I had the correct size strips—which, I did not do for the first couple of strips.

            And I have not perfected my placement for the embroidery yet.

       
     The stress and anxiety with cutting Ed’s ties that couldn’t be replaced was incredible. Especially since I was creating the design from one, small picture. However, the completed pillow, in my opinion, is amazingly beautiful and worth every minute!