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.
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This one was particularly bad... yikes!!
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However, when it came to the holes in my merino tights my approach was a little less holistic and a whole lot more expeditious!
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Ugly yes, but well, hopefully it will keep them keeping on for just a little bit longer!
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.
