At our house, the life span of a pair of tights is tragically short. I am sure many people can relate to that frustration of snagging a brand new pair of nylons, but now you can put your trashed tights to good use!
Here is my tutorial on making fabric flowers out of hosiery. As a disclaimer, you should know this is not my idea, I saw something similar on one of my favorite lifestyle shows, but this is my version, so here we go.
1. Cut off tights at the upper thigh, at the point where they are reinforced.
2. Snip off the toe, leaving yourself with a tube.
3. This is the Choose Your Own Adventure part. You have to decide how many layers of material you want. If you are using nylons or very thin tights, you'll probably want two layers, but for thick or textured tights, you generally only need one layer.
Since I am using a very thin pair of nylons, I need two layers. So I fold the tube in half length-wise ( if you are only working with one layer, just lay it flat).
4. Regardless of the number of layers you've made, this step is the same. Make sure all layers are stacked on top of each other evenly and then, using the longest stitch on your sewing machine, simply sew down the middle (don't reverse stitch).
5. If you folded your fabric, cut the folded edge open so that that all of your edges are loose.
6. Take one of the threads at the end of the tights and pull gently (if you pull too hard, the thread will snap and you will have to sew it again).
This is a tedious process so gently slide the fabric down each time your thread feels too tight.
7. Once your material is all bunched up, you will look at it and think, "Hmmm...this is too short to work with." Just slide it outward and adjust it on the thread to the width you want and then snip any trailing threads.
8. Twist one end inward in a spiral to make the center of the flower.
9. Hot glue it together as you wrap the fabric around it's self.
10. Glue a piece of felt to the back of the flower.
11. Now you can attach a pin, or an alligator clip or just glue or sew it directly onto your craft ( I attached pins to mine).
It's so simple and pretty, you'll want to snag all of your tights!
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