Upcycling Tights & A Lookbook! | Style Pile #15

There is a box in every crafters home
That is filled with old unfinished projects

and stuff you thrifted in the hopes of upcycling -
That becomes abandoned.

That becomes forgotten.
Well this is the series that tackles that

forgotten box
This is The Style Pile.

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Hello!

Welcome to the Style Pile, episode number
15!

So, this episode begins with a little bit
of a story to explain how I came to inherit…

literally hundreds of pairs of awesome tights.

About 3 years ago, I found out that my uncle
used to run a business that manufactured tights

and sold them to department stores in Australia
and in Japan.

And this was about 15 years ago now, um so
the business doesn’t exist anymore.

Anyway, there was still a fair amount of stock
leftover, um, that had been sitting around

in the basement of his old house for about
a decade, and he didn’t really know what

to do with them all, but then he found out
that I was into fashion and had a fashion

blog… and he asked if I wanted to have a
look at them and maybe take some and even

try and sell some and make some of those cash
dollars.

Well, obviously, I said yes.

I was super into wearing patterned tights
in 2014 and this was just like some sort of

amazing dream come true for me.

Little did I know, however: this leftover
stock would be literally hundreds pairs of

tights.

And because he was doing such a nice thing
for me…

I felt kind of obligated to take all of them.

So anyway, 3 years later, after taking a few
pairs that I wanted for myself, and also giving

many away to family and friends… and then
after also discovering that I’m really bad

and impatient at selling things... well, I
still have… all of these tights.

And this here is only about one-third of the
entire inherited collection.

There are a couple more suitcases full of
tights in storage right now.

It’s far too many tights for one human being
to deal with.

Right now, I also am just not that into wearing
full-length patterned tights – partly for

fashion reasons, but also because I don’t
really like wearing things that compress and

make my stomach uncomfortable.

SO, I wanted to see if I could upcycle some
of them into different fashion items, because

I really love the patterns on a lot of the
tights.

Yep.

So…

The intro of this video was a little deceptive.

My style pile "box" is much more than one
box.

It is this one box, yes, but then it’s also
another box here, and several suitcases full

of tights as well.

Oh boy.

So over the years I’ve seen a lot of youtube
tutorials showing you how to turn your tights

into crop tops.

And I’ve always been a little bit skeptical
of these tutorials, because well… firstly,

they’re always done by very skinny human
beings, and secondly, I didn’t think they

ever looked that comfortable.

So FIRST, I wanted to see if this tutorial
would work for someone with just a little

bit of fat on their bodies, somebody who wasn’t
a size 0.

i.e. me.

And for reference, I’m an Australian size
12 to 14 which I think is a US 8 to 10.

Anyway, here’s how that went down.

So I busted a fresh pair of tights open,
lay them out flat,

and then I was basically just going to snip
the crotch out in a triangle sorta shape like

this.

First I folded the tights in half lengthways
so that the cutout would be symmetrical.

And I also cut the toes off, so that I could
put my arms through these new… leg…sleeves.

Because the legs…

Are now sleeves.

You’ll see what I mean.

And this is my first time trying it on!

So this is a baby's top.

[laughs]

Let's see if I can get it on.

[grunting] Owww! [laughs]

Ehhhhhhggjkl!

Uh!

Ohh, it's not comfortable!

The sleeves are alright...

[laughs]

Oh look, there's ladders in it already.

There's ladders.

Cool.

Well.

Where did my boobs go!?

This has completely squashed my boobs out
of existence.

And its tight in all of the wrong places!

Ah - there goes another ladder down the back.

Okay, so yeah, the ladders probably could
have been avoided if I'd used like a pair

of leggings or something thicker... but if
you've got ANY chub or boobage, it's not really

gunna happen!

It's just very, very, very, VERY uncomfortable.

If you like tops that are extremely restrictive
across your chest, then, go for it!

Now to be fair, you might be like, Annika,
you did it WRONG, you just need to use a bigger

pair of tights and then it'll fit.

So THIS pair came from a size large.

It also has a less visible seam down the middle
AND I also tried wearing it with a super padded

bra to try and avoid pancake boobs.

I'm really trying hard to make this work.

And it doesn't look that bad... but I also
can't really breathe and I'm super hecking

uncomfortable.

Hey Luci!

Luci: Yes?

Annika: Come give me your honest opinions
on this top I just made.

Luci: Ummmm...

Um, it looks like a really.....

Annika: What do you think about the fit?

Luci: I just think... it's... [whispering]:
I don't know what to say!

What do YOU think about it?

Annika: It's REALLY tight, I can't, I can
hardly breathe.

Luci: you're constantly adjusting it.

It looks like a little bit of like a, of like
pressure applied to it and the whole thing

would just - whoop!

Spring right off.

Annika: [laughs] That's what it feels like.

Luci: Like you'd be out in public and it'd
just be like, DOINK!

And it would just fly away in the wind.

Annika: Like an elastic band.

Luci: Yep.

Annika: Ooow.

I need to take it off now.

[grunts]

Soooo.. yeah.

The next thing I wanted to try was turning
the tights into SOCKS.

And even though I'm not super into patterned
tights at the moment, I'm very much liking

knee-high and thigh-high socks right now.

I also wanted to do this because I found out,
after I got the tights, that a lot of them

are child-sized.

Not Annika-sized.

But also the child-sized tights are really
cute and have cute patterns on them and I

wanna be able to do something with them.

So, with that long preamble over, this is
how I turned some of these tights into socks.

Tutorial time!

So as you can see, these child-size tights
DO fit around my legs but they are not nearly

long enough for me.

So I’m going to turn them into knee-high
socks instead.

So I snipped the waist and the gusset part
off, leaving me with two little sockies.

And that’s it.

…

NAH I’m kidding, what kind of tutorial would
that be?!

Now the problem with just snipping them like
this, and leaving it there, is that the socks

will constantly fall down.

They're not tight enough around the top.

So what I need to do is add elastic around
the top of the socks.

So I put one of the socks on to see where
it went up to on my leg, and then I grabbed

a 1 inch wide piece of elastic and I wrapped
it around this part of my leg.

Then I pulled the elastic a little bit tight
– not so tight that it was uncomfortable,

but just so that it fit snugly – and then
I cut the elastic to this length.

And using this piece, I cut another piece
of elastic that’s identical in length, because

I'm making 2 socks.

For both pieces of elastic, I folded them
into a loop like this, and next I’m going

to sew a zig-zag stitch over the elastic ends,
connecting the loop up permanently.

And I went back and forth with my zig zag
a couple of times to make sure that the ends

were connected super strongly.

Then I turned one sock inside out… except
when I did this, I was like: Oh my gosh, the

rainbow on the inside of the sock is this
really nice pastel colour, and I like it even

better than the brighter, more vibrant rainbow
on the right-side of the socks.

So, I then decided to make the inside-pattern
of the socks the new OUTSIDE pattern, so that

I would have PASTEL rainbow socks when I'm
finished instead!

So, this is a little bit confusing, but this
pastel coloured inside is the new OUTSIDE,

the new "right side" of the socks.

And the vibrant side is the new INSIDE, the
new "wrong side" of the socks.

SO, with the socks INSIDE OUT (and this is
the new inside-out), I popped the circular

piece of elastic over the top, and I’m going
to sew the elastic on all the way around the

outside with a zig-zag stitch, like this.

Singing: Sewing around the top of the sock,
doop de doop de doop.

While sewing, I stretched the sock and the
elastic so that they would become the same

length and match up all the way around the
top of the sock.

Now if you’re not confident with sewing
stretchy materials, and just eyeballing this,

then you can use the pinning-and-quartering-method
to do this, and I will pop a link of an example

for that in the description.

To finish it off and make it look nice, I
flipped the elastic down one more time, like

this.

And next I am going to sew a zig-zag stitch
across here.

However, I found it easier to sew this part
if I turned the sock the RIGHT way around

first, and then sew over the top of the elastic
just by feel.

[music]

Singing, again: Sewing on around the top of
the sock, doop de doop de doo, doop de doop

de doop.

And now, these socks are done!

I also wanted to salvage the, uh… not so
successful “crop tops” from before, into

thigh-high socks, which I did basically by
using the same method I just went over, BUT

before I did that, I had to make new feet
for the socks (…coz I cut them off before

to make sleeves), and I did this by turning
them inside out and sewing a new foot part

like this, then cutting off the excess fabric
from the seam.

So, how did they turn out?

[music plays]

And now it’s time for a mini Lookbook, showing
you how I styled these knee-high and thigh-high

socks!

…I’m not really sure what this video is
anymore, it’s turned into part vlog, part

fail, part tutorial and part lookbook, but
I hope you’re enjoying it nonetheless!

For these pink checkered thigh-high socks,
I styled them with a pink top and a pinafore

dress.

I then wore an oversized denim jacket over
the top of this.

Oh, and everything else that I’m wearing
here is thrifted, of course!

So don’t ask me where these pieces are from
'coz I’ll be like, uhhh, they’re secondhand!

Maybe go visit your local thrift store to
try and find something similar!

For the rainbow socks, I basically wanted
to turn myself into a walking human rainbow,

so I paired it with this multi-coloured, very
bright windbreaker that I recently got from

Depop, and some brightly-coloured shoes.

I stuck to, uh, lighter, more muted colours
for my top and shorts, so that the socks and

jacket would remain the eye-catching pieces
of this outfit and I wouldn’t totally overdo

it with the colours, because these are pretty
strong statement pieces on their own.

Now as you probably noticed in my previous
outfits, I like to match the colour of my

socks to the colour of my top.

Then, if I wear something that’s got a pattern
all over it, like this polka dot romper, I

think that the matching colour of the top
and the socks pulls the outfit together really

nicely.

Generally, when choosing a pair of socks,
I try and pair them to another colour that's

already in my outfit.

And finally, these floral socks were also
a child-sized pair of tights that I wanted

to upcycle into knee-high socks because...
daisies.

Daisies are cute.

I paired them with this cute courdroy dress
layered over a white top, and a beret, because…

berets are also cute.

Alright, so that’s one way to upcycle tights
–and I really like how it turned out!

Obviously, most of you won’t have inherited
3 suitcases full of tights, but it’s also

a really good way to upcycle old tights that
have a small ladder, or some holes, or some

wear, or if you find tights too uncomfortable
around your tummy like I do.

So, I hope that some of you found this helpful!

And as for the remainder of these tights…
well –

I will keep some for myself, I'm going to
turn more into socks, gunna give some more

to friends, butttt I think most of them are
probably going to make their way to charity

stores.

BUT if you guys have any other ideas of how
to upcycle tights, that isn’t a totally

impractical and uncomfortable crop top, I'd
love to hear them!

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