Meet the tie from hell.
I am not exactly sure what pulled me to this tie. Why would I buy such a thing? I have no clue. I think the tie is possessed and it chose me to purchase it. Ugly isnt it? But Ugly doesnt necessitate calling it the Tie From Hell. So Why you ask? Well to explain why one needs to understand the tie gutting process.
Introducing an ordinary tie.
Notice the white label thing. This is usually a manufactures label but sometimes it is just an ordinary loop. Step one is to remove this. Most of the time this is secured by two stitches in each corner. Occasionally it is stitched along the narrow side and usually has about 5 or 6 stitches. The aforementioned Tie From Hell had TWO ROWS of 15 tightly compacted stitches securing it to the tie. No manufactures label by the way. None whatsoever anywhere. This should have been my first clue. Ok a pain but its a small loop so no big deal right? Wrong. Not only was it double stitched but it was also glued. Yep thats right GLUED!!! After stabbing myself once with the seam ripper I finally got the loop removed.
Now lets move on to step two. On each end of the tie is usually a looping of several strings that tacks everything together. These loops need to be cut.
Now after those loops are cut there is another string that goes along the whole length of the tie. It loosely secures the seam. Pull this string out and you are ready to gut the tie. With the removal of the string that is holding it all together a stiffer inner material is exposed. It is normally white and almost burlap like in textures. You pull this out and discard it.
Sounds easy enough right? In the course of an hour I did 49 of these. Now what was so different about the Tie From Hell? It was double stitched the entire length of the tie. There was no pull on this string and it comes undone. Oh no we couldnt be that simple. Ok perhaps they were going for a more secure tie, which is fine. But it was DOUBLE STITCHED> No sugar sack seam here. No pull one simple string and have it undone. Oh no we couldnt do that now could we????
So this is what I get for paying $1.25 for a tie. After a long battle with it (Did I mention the DOUBLE STITCHED row that was TIGHTLY STITCHED?) It is finally gutted.
Notate the remnants of string still attached to the guts? No other tie had the guts sewn in. That just added to the difficulty of gutting it.
Well finally at the end of it all is a nice little pile of gutted ties. These ties still need the top and bottom "pockets" removed but that will have to wait for another day.
