After wearing only my own self-made tights throughout 2013 during my year of all-handmade, I have worn some RTW tights a few times lately. And made a surprising discovery.
I actually prefer my self-made tights.
Funny, hmm? One of the things I had been most looking forward to was getting back to wearing RTW tights again. For some reason I think I had convinced myself that factory made, seamless tights would be sooooo superior; comfier, warmer, better fitting. And NO inside leg seam, hurrah! Life was going to be so great once I ditched those!
Well, nice, smooth, perfectly seam-free legs is a plus in the looks department, I grant them that; but otherwise I’ve found myself strangely disappointed with my RTW tights, almost immediately. The fit is horrible. I buy my designated size Talls, but find they still sink at the crotch over the course of a day, which is hyper annoying. Meaning I have to find a discreet moment to hoink up each leg and redistribute them every now and then. Annoying!
I have never had that problem with my own self-drafted tights. I guess I had forgotten that a sinking crotch was ever a thing, at all!
Perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised. After all, my self-made tights are drafted to fit my legs perfectly, so um, they do. Most RTW tights have two unshaped tubes for legs, the same circumference from thigh to ankle. Obviously most women’s legs do not have the same circumference all the way down. My own tights are bigger around the thigh, going in to smaller around the knee, going out to a bit bigger at the calf and shrinking in to skinnier around the ankle again. What this means is that the tendency for an elasticated thing to migrate to an area of lesser girth, like from the thigh and down to the knee, which is what happens inevitably in an unshaped RTW tight; is not an issue.
The inside leg seam that is an unavoidable feature of my own tights; well undoubtably it is a less perfect look. But it is also a helpful aid to putting on the tights correctly. When you have a featureless tube it can sometimes be difficult to keep the legs straight and also to tell where you put your heel the last time you wore the tights, and they can easily get twisted up. You never ever have this confusion with an inside leg seam there.
So I’m eating my own words, and as my current crop of rtw tights start to hole-up and die I might just go back to making my own again. Ha!
In related news, I’ve been checking out the old sock drawer and found ew HOLES! the horror! A whole bunch of poor sad hole-y socks were shoved hastily and lazily back into the drawer undarned at the end of winter last year and forgotten about. Out of sight out of mind. Bad me.
Fortunately I like darning; it’s old-fashioned but I find it quietly contemplative and a small meditation on slow “fashion”. Not simply tossing out but pausing and thinking and doing; taking a few minutes to mend and prolong the life of a thing.
This one was particularly bad… yikes!!
However, when it came to the holes in my merino tights my approach was a little less holistic and a whole lot more expeditious!
Ugly yes, but well, hopefully it will keep them keeping on for just a little bit longer!
Thanks for the self-drafting links! I can't wait to try my hand at this.
Finally, an answer to a mystery of the universe – how to darn socks. I've always mended my tights on my sewing machine, not quite so tidily as you have done here. And I just checked your tutorials as well. Wonderful. Thank you.
I wish that I could make my own tights, I can't seem to find any store bought tights that fit my 6' 1" frame. Every pair I own sink at the crotch so I am always adjusting them when no ones looking. I need to find a seamtress that can make me a a pair of tights. 🙂
Many of my clients are now realising that their clothes (if they bought well initially) are worth the time and effort to repair. I guess the world is catching up with us sewers – or is that going back to when we all had the sense to realise that what is worth having is worth looking after!
Enjoy your darned socks and mended non-sagging tights 🙂
Inspiring post! I had a similar moment recently, on a day when one of my makes was in the wash and the RTW I wore instead felt like a second best option – It was a lovely feeling of "I've actually gotten better at this sewing-for-me caper!" Can you recommend a good online tutorial for darning? I've never attempted it before and my mum-made socks are worrying near needing the attention. 🙁
thank you Danielle! I have written a tutorial on darning, and the link is at the end of the post above. I hope you find it helpful 🙂
Do you knit? Tights can be knit to our own dimensions (though it's challenging for me to finish socks – I haven't tried tights yet). They can be tried on as knit to make sure the fit is absolutely perfect ….
Just a thought.
MaryMary; yes I do knit my own jumpers, cardigans, scarves and socks, including the ones pictured above! I just sew my tights though 🙂
I am so amazed that you sew tights.
(I LOVE sock knitting!)
I guess I should have added that hand knit tights would obviously be heavy (even if knit from fine wool) and meant for the dead of winter.
I need to learn how to darn. Thanks for the links.
How interesting. I have been on the fence about making tights due to a lazy disposition in this area and also being a bit unsure as to fabric choices, but I suffer oh so much from bad tights fit. I know exactly what you mean about the inelegance of hoiking them up. I might change my mind, come winter – I don't think the inside seam would bother me, as I often wear leggings instead of tights and they have seams on both sides. As for darning, I do darn, especially my daughter's thick black school tights. With two girls wearing them for most of the year, and the constant going through on the toes, it's just too expensive to keep replacing them. So old fashioned reasons, I guess.
I like darning socks, even though they are so cheap to buy there is something very theraputic about darning! Going to check out your tight tutorial- very inspiring.
Me too 😉 Possibly as my hand stitching is only neat when darning socks! I'm currently negotiating a swap with a knitting friend for a pair of woollen socks in return for a Swoon cardi! I'll be making the Seamstress Rosehip tights soon, the seam is up the back of the leg, ohh la la! 😉
Thanks for linking to your tutorials. Maybe one day I'll make my own tights.
That;'s what I am wary of with making my own tights, but I am going there sometime soon. Oh darning, hubby's socks are starting to look like that and I'm trying to work out if I really want to darn.
If the socks are hand-knit, it is well worth the time and any little expense to darn them. If they are just plain old store-boughten fine-gauge polyester socks, it is cheaper and faster to either throw them away or to use them for some other clever purpose. Store-boughten woolen socks are usually worth the time and trouble to salvage.
Oh my god !!!!! too much work for me, socks home made !!! I'll made one time juste for fun, that 's all !
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Loved the whole of this post. 'Slow' fashion, I like it. It is why I tune into your blog. Hope you got some callers from the blog hop. Jo x
thank you Jo for including me 🙂 and I have to confess now to not knowing what a blog hop is!
As always, I´m so impressed with your skills!
Can one still buy those "darning things" ???- I can only remember my mom having one, but don't know what they are called in english…..if pushed and I had to dig in the memory banks, I could probably remember the Afrikaans name.
I don't know if the words are the same in Dutch (Nederlands) en Afrikaans, but there's a reasonable chance they are. I had to look up "sokken stoppen" (darning socks) to find the Dutch word for a darning egg (which is what I think the thing is called in English), but it's the literal translation: "stop-ei".
My grandmother gave me two last year, one egg shaped, the other one not, but I don't remember what she called them.
I'm not sure what they are properly called in English either! Mine was passed down to me from my English grandmother and we always called it the darning mushroom, just because that is it's shape and what it looks like. 🙂
Although my grandmother gave me her old darning eggs, I've never used them. However, I don't knit my own socks so I guess the motivation is less.
About the tights… I'm not so surprised you are disappointed with the RTW ones. There are always issues with those, either with length or with sinking at the crotch. It drove me to experiment with wearing stockings years ago (which don't have the crotch issue, but they have other disadvantages. Now, when it's colder so I have to wear either I tend to alternate between the two).
Basically, modern tights are yet another example of the fashion industry trying to solve fitting issues with stretch. And lots of it. And for tights, as for many other things, it doesn't really work but it has become the standard so the vast majority of us don't know any better.
Maybe I should try making my own as well… I did wonder about issues with the seams but I won't know until I try. In autumn, I think I will.
Oh, and in it's ancient past, RTW leg wear was knitted to shape: Until well into the 1950's, 'fully fashioned' stockings were the standard. Knitted flat, shaped to the average leg and joined with a seam at the back and a separate foot piece. No stretch. You can still get these from some specialist sellers, but they're expensive.
I feel it is odd I had no idea how sock darning worked – i.e. the stitching. It looks really meditative though. A good in front of the fire winter job… 😀
Carolyn, you never cease to amaze. You are a wonder, a "can-do" lady, and someone I would like to be just like! I am going to think about making my own tights, but I think that seam would worry me.
Great post, Carolyn! Darning socks is something I never dreamed of making, and thanks for linking both tutorials!!
You know, I never thought I would consider making my own tights, but you make a good case. I have the same problem as you – I buy talls, but they migrate down throughout the day, and it can be really annoying! May just have to try my hand at making them myself! ^_^
Thanks for the tutorial! I used to darn my ex's socks, more as an exercise in frugality than because they were particularly worth saving. I don't think it rubbed off on him (the frugality bit) and for years I had so many socks (too many) that I just tossed them when they got holey. But now, Bill buys me a pair of cashmere socks at Christmas and they are so lush (not to mention expensive) that I want them to last a long time. I've had a go at darning them that didn't work so well (and I tried felting some patches on, but I can't tell yet how well that worked, will have to wait until winter when I wear them). I have quite tender tootsies so the darning has to not make blisters or anything on my feet! But I'll have another go – I've a couple of pairs waiting for some TLC.
Oh, that sinking feeling in the crotch … but that aside, I share your love of darning! My mother often used an old lightbulb, but I suppose that's a piece of useless trivia in a world of CFL bulbs. Do you ever pick up stitches to knit a patch for a particularly large hole? I graft the stitches back into the fabric at the end of the patch and sew up the sides, but I'm not entirely happy with my technique. In the back of my mind is an old Patons sock pattern that was designed to make toe and heel reknitting easy. I recall it involved a row of stitches in a contrast colour. Hmm …
You can do the Elizabeth Zimmerman trick of cutting a stitch and raveling back to a section of "good" knitting, as when installing an afterthought pocket or thumb. Then pick up all the live stitches. Knit half of them to fill in the hole, then graft the working stitches to the waiting stitches to finish. Takes more time than a knitted patch, but you can do all kinds of interesting textures and/or colors that way. Plus, no pesky seam to cause discomfort within a shoe.
I wear tights all winter long. They keep me warm, but so many holes! Darning socks/tights seems like a good Idea….. I tell you what I'll give it a try! Thank you for the useful advice.
This is the level of hand made to which I aspire. Beautifully described. And motivating!
My mother recently sent to me a bag of my grandmother's sewing accessories she had come across in her storage, including a darning egg (not quite mushroom shaped like yours obviously). Thanks for the timely information on how to use it!
Instead of darning those bigger holes, you can pick up stitches along the bottom of the hole, and knit a little patch to cover it. Either reach in at the side of the beginning of each row and drag up a loop to knit together with the first stitch, or wait until the end and sew down the top of the patch and the sides of the patch to finish. Takes me less time to fix a big hole that way, and looks quite tidy.
Could you flat-lock the tights seam on the over locker?