Updated 1/30/24: I almost pulled all of my Harry Potter content from my site.
After a lot of deliberation, I decided to continue to share it with my readers + crafting community but with this note:

I vehemently disagree with the comments made by J.K. Rowling. Trans women are women. Trans men are men. Their identities are valid and any attempts to erase their existence is harmful, wrong, and disgusting.

I stand beside the LGBTQIA+ community and find it important to support and respect the Queer Community, including those who have found any level of joy, solace, or identification in the Harry Potter series. As an Ally, learning is an ongoing experience. For those of you interested in educating yourselves on how you can support the Trans and Nonbinary communities, there’s a great guide from The Trevor Project (a nonprofit organization that focuses on suicide prevention efforts in the LGBTQIA+ community): Guide to Being an Ally to Transgender and Nonbinary Young People.

I will not tolerate discriminatory or hateful speech in any form. You don’t have to understand someone to respect them. They know who they are more than we ever will.
Spread love, spread joy, and keep making beautiful things. -KatyM.

The making for Louis’ party continues!  We always like to have gifts for the attendees that double as fun party dress-up AND they can take home and play with later.  Some Hogwarts House ties are totally part of that fun and were just the ticket!

You will need:

• Tie Template (Download at the link above)
• 17″ cut of elastic
• Fabric glue.  I LOVE Fabri-Tac for projects like this.
• Maroon Felt for the main tie
• Yellow felt, cut into 1 inch strips
• Sharp scissors

AFTER using the template to cut out the tie shape, take your elastic and attach it to the top middle of your tie.  I used a sewing machine and quickly stitched and back stitched it together.  You could also easily use the fabric glue to attach it.  Whichever is easiest!

DRAW a line with your glue, on a diagonal.  Place a strip of the yellow felt over top.  Don’t worry about being super accurate.

TURN your tie over and clip the yellow pieces to align perfectly with your tie shape.

CONTINUE adding more lines of yellow until you reach the top.  I think each of my ties had four stripes each, but you obviously can make as few or as many as you’d like.

SET aside your newly completed tie and get started on the next one.  Felt is incredibly inexpensive and easy to work with.  And you’ll have a bazillion ties completed before you even know it.

We obviously only picked Griffyndor colors for our party.  It’s simple enough to create a couple in each of the four house colors.  However, we thought that maybe we didn’t want to know who in our group of friends has kiddos in Slytherine.  So we kept it simple and stuck with the one house.

This tie could easily be remixed for several occasions.  Think: Father’s Day, Halloween costume accessory, etc.  I can’t wait to see what you come up with!