Frugal Fix: Tights to Socks

My little one has grown out of her favorite tights.  They are cotton and I’ve been buying them for her since she was born.  Unfortunately they aren’t available anymore.

Which is a shame because except for the length, they still fit just fine.

So I cut them off and made them into socks.  All six pair.

Here’s how I did it:

I cut the legs off and straightened the edges.

I found some sweet little lacy elastic that I thought would work perfectly,

and cut a piece just a bit shorter than the circumference of the cut off tight leg (now sock).

 Next I overlapped the ends of the elastic slightly and stitched them together with a zig zag stitch.  I did this on my sewing matching but it could easily be done by hand.

 Then I marked four equal distance points on both the elastic,

 and the sock edge.

 Next I pinned them together at the matching points.

 This let me stretch each piece to match as I stitched them together. I could have just skipped the marking and pinning and gone straight to sewing,

 but experience tells me that the extra effort it takes (which really is very slight) to mark and pin is worth it in the end.

Note: I pulled the pins out before sewing each section.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I don’t recommend sewing over pins.

The stitch I used was a very tiny zig zag that allows it to stretch.

I flipped up the elastic and they were done.

 I could have added a zig zagged top stitch but I didn’t find it necessary.

They go perfectly with her new skirts.

And I am told they even improved her badminton game.

As an added bonus, I found that a 3/4 inch (more or less) cut off band from the tights

stretched out

 curls into a wonderfully comfortable headband,

with just enough stretch left for it to hold but not so much that it hurts.

I added a pretty pink flower and she was all set.

So now she has 6 “new” pair of socks and a boatload of little headbands.

Fun, easy and frugal.  My kind of sewing!