Sock It To Me

Yea, I just made my first pair of sock, stockings, knee highs...whatevah.  I sewed them, that is.  Since I've been on this year-long shopping ban, that's the one thing I've had a bit of a craving for...so when I saw this tutorial for making your own tights, I was so on it.  

One small catch was I didn't have enough 2-way stretch fabric in my stash for a whole pair of tights, so I opted for over-the-knee-socks instead.

I know, it doesn't look like much just laying there...

 I followed her idea of pinning the fabric while on my foot creating a inner side seam, but deviated from some of her suggestions to create a smoother fit.

But check out this leg shot...woo-hoo!  Not only do they fit perfectly, but it was so easy.

For those of you following at home, here's some important points (or lessons I learned):

1) make sure your fabric has 2-way stretch and that the stretchiest part is going around your leg, i.e. is parallel to the top of the sox.  Otherwise you won't be able to get it on and off the ankle/heel area.   (I did that the first time...not paying attention...tsk, tsk.)

2) use your machine's stretch stitch on a small setting, or zig-zag at a narrow width and smallish stitch. (I found out that my old sewing machine had a cam just for stretch stitching and used it for the first time in 20-some years!!  better late than never...)

3) once you have it pinned and ready to sew, make a paper pattern so you don't have to do the on-the-foot-pinning every time you want to sew a sox!  (I did it for sox #2!)

For more details check out Project Minima