I love my tights in winter and have been inspired by Carolyns’ many version, but so far had not got around to making my own.

Then I started to see the Rose Hips Tights by Seamster Patterns and just had to give them a go, especially after seeing Elaine’s Rose Hip Tights

I purchased the PDF pattern and had it printed at Kwik.Kopy at Bondi Junction on their big printer, just 1 x A0 page!

Here is the first pair I made to test the fit.

Fabric is my brown Mercury Jersey

Size XS which was my hip measurement.

I wasn’t sure how the foot piece would go as my foot is 9 /12 ” which is 1/2″ longer than that for the XS size, but after wearing them a few times they feel fine.

For the gusset I used a piece of the leftover Stella Cotton Elastomeric from my active wear wardrobe.

For this pair and future versions I will reduce the body length, by the amount of the waistband, as the ones pictured above are very “harry high pants” but I have now cut off the waistband, removed 3cm and sewn the waistband back on, much more comfortable to wear.

This is the pair that I have been busting to sew, I even went back to Cabramatta to get some more of the fabric especially for the tights!

As I pointed out here, this fabric has a lot less stretch than the brown Mercury Jersey I used for the pair above and when I tried them on, oh my there was no way I could wear them as the length was too short in the legs.

So of course back to the cutting table where I added a 10cm band of fabric.

I chose the position of the band based on my skirt lengths, so it is only if I lift up my skirt that you can see the band.

The other thing that I really like about making my own tights is that you can add a control top.  This was achieved by making the tights low rise and then use the waistband pattern to cut out the width of the power mesh and sew it on.

These are quite quick to sew, just make sure you have all your notches and dots marked, it makes the going a lot easier!

Now this for the ladies from my Sewing Guild group as they had seen both pieces at our last meeting and strongly suggested this photo.

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2015 Stash Out: 5.05m
2015 Stash In: 16.5m