So on Friday I told you how to make superhero boots. (By the way, 1800 notes? Thanks!) Today I’m going to show you how to make custom thigh-highs (or socks in general.) We’ll just call it the sock weekend.
Here I’m making Tomoe Mami’s thigh-highs. (I’ve intentionally made them in brown, as I didn’t like the purple.) Do you know how hard it is to find thigh-highs in the right color, with that pinstripe? Not to mention, not everyone fits into those “one size fits most” socks; my thighs never co-operate with the things and they end up around my knees constantly. As a result I’ve taken to making my own.
Standard sewing tools (measuring tape, scissors, pins, sewing machine.) I used a serger for much of it but it’s really not necessary at all.
Sufficient amount of a stretch fabric; the stretch will have to run around your leg at the very least. I used about 30”x45” and had plenty of scrap, so you should be safe with a yard.
Enough wide elastic to make bands that fit snugly around your thighs.
Cut your fabric into rectangles, the widest enough to fit the widest point of your leg. I freehand this because you really don’t need that much of it. Put one rectangle aside and focus on the first sock. Sew up the length and across the bottom. You have essentially just made a large wine bag for your thigh.
Stick your foot in this Sexy Wine Bag. Start pinning it so that your wine bag clings to you more like a sock. Go down to your ankle; it’s way easier to do this in two parts. When you are pleased with the tightness, carefully take it off your leg without disturbing the pins. It’s usually necessary to make a few adjustments to the pins once you have it off, just so they’re laying flat/even.
Sew up that fit you just made. You should end up with a sock that ends up with a club foot. (See picture. Laugh.)
Now do your foot. You may want to round it out over the toe so you don’t get little elf points. Doing the seam along the bottom of your foot is the absolute easiest, imho, because you get a better fit with less finicking, but you will also end up having the seam along the underside of your foot, which I know bothers some people. If this is weird to you, then do the seam along the side… you just might not have as good of a fit as you want without a lot of finicking if your fabric doesn’t have a lot of stretch.
Carefully take it off, adjust the pins for neatness, and sew again.
Trace this finished sock against your other Sexy Wine Bag and sew that one, too. If you’re super into it, trace the sock off on paper, too, so that you have a pattern you can reuse next time without having to do any pinning/fitting.
But these socks don’t have finished top hems, are let’s be real, are liable to fall down if they’re left all on their own. You could just fold them over and hem ‘em, but I like elastic in there for support.
Put on your socks (inside out!), make your elastic bands, and slide the bands on overtop your socks. Fold the top edge of the sock down over the elastic band and pin it in place. Go all the way around your leg –– be careful doing this, as it can be tricky to pin against the underside of your thigh when you can’t really see what you’re doing, but it’s doable. When you’ve finished pinning, take it off –– it should look a little weird, as the fabric is no longer stretched. No big deal; sew it in place, making sure you stretch the fabric out as you sew it. I like to catch the needle along the edge of the elastic just so it doesn’t roll/do weird things inside the casing.
And then voila. You have finished socks.
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