Hello!!! I'm really sorry to bother you haha I'm making a Nowi costume and I'm being ridiculous about absolutely making her scalloped thigh highs. Do you have any advice on fabrics and techniques for scalloped stockings that won't be droopy? Thanks!!
I would make the thigh highs out of a knit with a facing at the top. Basically combining the principles of an unusual facing with our pattern, but instead of making that /\ shape, you’ll do a row of scallops. You’ll want to figure out a very even regular pattern for this and sew very evenly, and clip your corners very cleanly. You may even want to do a fusible knit interfacing in these to give them a bit more body, especially if your knit is on the flimsy side. Give ‘em a good pressing to keep them nice and flat, too.
Definitely do a test copy first, too -- you’ll want to be sure that your fabric is agreeable to it, and that your stitches are tight. I used a narrow zig-zag stitch on ours, which did the trick just fine, but if your stitch is too wide, you risk blunting your scallops, preventing a close clip.
You could also use that facing as an excuse to install elastic in the top edge of the stocking, too, but since Nowi has functional garters, you may not need to worry about that :)
- Jenn
