HOW TO MAKE SOCKS #2
Making your own socks is really satisfying and allows you to design them to your own taste. Sew your socks using stretchy fabric or knit them out of your favourite wool. Both these methods allow you to tailor the socks to your own foot size, which ensures that they fit snugly. Enjoy making and wearing your hand-made socks!
Making Socks from Fabric
1.Choose fabric that is slightly elastic. Buy some fabric or repurpose old clothes into socks. Old sweater, shirts, and leggings all work well as sock material. Avoid using material that doesn’t have any stretch, as this makes the socks difficult to put on.
Your material needs to be approximately 60 centimetres (24 in) x 60 centimetres (24 in).
Any fabric, such as cotton, polyester, or linen, will work as long as has a small percentage of spandex in it. Check the label of the fabric to determine what it is made of.
2.Place a sock over the fabric and cut around it. Find a sock to use as a template and put it on the fabric. Use a pair of fabric scissors to cut around the sock. Cut about 1 centimetre (0.39 in) away from the sock to make the fabric template slightly larger than your sock. This ensures that the socks fit correctly.
Repeat this process to create 2 cut-outs in total.
3.Put the cut-out socks onto the fabric and cut around them. Lie the cut-out socks flat on the fabric and then use fabric scissors to trim around the outline. Try to cut the fabric as close as you can to the cut-out sock to ensure that it is the same size. Then, repeat this step with the other cut-out sock.
If you don’t have fabric scissors, use a sharp pair of kitchen scissors instead.
This creates 4 cut-outs in total. Using this method ensures that the cut-outs for each sock are identical in size.
4.Place the cut-out socks on top of each other with the printed faces together. Place 1 cut-out sock flat on a table with the patterned side of the fabric facing upward. Then, stack the other cut-out sock on top with the patterned side of the fabric facing downward.
Don’t worry about which way the fabric faces if it looks the same on both sides.
Repeat this process with the other cut-out socks to make 2 socks.
5.Pin the top and the bottoms of the socks together. Ensure that the socks are stacked perfectly on top of each other and then place a pin down through both layers of fabric at the top of the sock and then back toward to you. Place the pins horizontally so that they sit across the width of the sock. This helps to keep the fabric in place.
If you don’t have any sewing pins, use thin needles instead.
6.Sew around the edge of the socks with a zig-zag stitch. Set your machine to the zig-zag stitch on the stitching wheel. Then, start at the top of the sock and sew down 1 edge, around the foot, and back up the other edge. Make sure that you don’t sew over the foot hole!
Always back stitch before you start sewing to stop the threads from coming loose.
If you don’t have a sewing machine, stitch the socks by hand.
7.Sew a straight stitch over the zig-zag stitch. This reinforces the zig-zag stitch and helps to prevent the seam from coming undone. Set your machine to the straight stitch, and then sew around the edge and foot seams of your sock to join them together.
Try to sew the straight stitch directly on top of the zig-zag stitch to make it as effective as possible.
Cut off any loose threads to stop them from itching your feet.
8.Turn them inside out to reveal the finished socks. Reach into your sock and take hold of the toe. Then, pull it through the leg of the sock to turn it inside out. This hides the seams and reveals the printed side of your fabric.
Hand wash your socks to keep them in stellar condition.