Fishnet Tights…Yes Please!

When February’s theme was announced (using a variety of fabric bases), I took it as a challenge, and my ideas just kept rolling. I ended up with 3 solid ideas, but backed up to 2 as I was becoming frustrated with one and I began to realize that in the end I wouldn’t ever wear it other than for the pictures that needed to be taken. Instead, I dove head first into my other ideas, the first I’m sharing with you today, and the other I will share later in the month.

One thing that came to mind was fishnet tights using the black wide mesh with The Wolf and Tree’s Gazelle Ladies’ Footed Tights pattern. The pattern comes with pieces for both fabrics that have only a 2-way stretch and also fabrics with a 4-way stretch, as well as petite, regular and tall lengths. Due to the amount of vertical stretch in the fabric, I found that after sewing one leg, I needed to move the crotch down 2 inches. If I would have realized this to begin with, I would have used the petite length. Since there is also greater than 30% horizontal stretch I used my size down in the hips so that I wouldn’t have to worry about them moving.

The pattern calls for 1.75 yards for the footed tights. I measured the length of my pattern piece, as I knew I could get both legs in my size with the fabric folded selvedge to selvedge, and found that 1.5 yards would be plenty, with extra, for the low rise option. I used the yoga waistband, but made it 3 times the height, making this out of the black circular knit.

Gazelle has a ½” seam allowance, this is so that you can use French seams, which I do love, but they were not going to work for this mesh. I opted to use a narrow 3 thread serged seam on all of the mesh to mesh seams. After completing each seam, I then moved my blade out farther, so that I could sew an additional seam to reinforce and capture any edges that were missed without cutting the stitches that were already there. In the center of the crotch, where the 4 seams join, I went over that a few times to make sure it would hold. I then attached my waistband with a regular 4 thread serged seam.

I used to wear fishnets all the time, I was one of those punk girls in high school, I had black boots and plaid skirts. The worst was catching my tights on something and having them snag. Oh, and I wasn’t cheap with my fishnet tights, I think I paid $15 for DKNY ($22 from Macy’s site now) because they fit the best. I feel like these are going to hold up so much better than those did, and the price is basically the same.

Because I wasn’t going to take pics in just my tights, I decided to finish off a few other things I had on my list to make. The Liv Skirt (German pattern) was made with supplex, I ended up reducing the amount of fabric at the waist by 2” because it was too big, but now I know better for next time. This skirt was literally made in 10 minutes (cutting and sewing), as it’s that fast. I wanted a contour waistband, so I used the waistband from my GreenStyle Strides, and it fit perfectly!

I’ve been searching for the perfect raglan, so I have set out to try a handful of raglan patterns from different designers. This one is the Demi by Sinclair Patterns, with the scoop neck and straight hem made from light heathered gray rayon spandex (I am seriously obsessed with Phee’s rayon spandex if you can’t tell already). This pattern has a lot of different neck options that I want to try out including an off the shoulder option. The pattern has options for petite, regular, and tall.

The top looks great as is, although it looks like I need to make some changes on my next one. It appears as though I need a swayback adjustment, but this could possibly be corrected by reducing the size of the back through the waist. Fit says it’s to be semi-fitted, but I feel as though it’s a little larger than semi-fitted through my waist and hips with my measured size and grading. Upper arms are a little loose for my liking with about 2″ of ease, by this is something I’ve found with a lot of knit long sleeved tops.

As time goes on during the next month of making my raglans, I’ll learn more about the fitting of them and the differences, so I’m not going to share a complete pattern review on this until I’ve completed my journey of raglans.

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