Bette on Toast: A spot of Make Do and Mend, for the war effort

Here's a new theme for Bette on Toast - a crafty post! I'm not really a crafty person, but when I happened across this tutorial (and this one and this one and this one), I decided to try my hand at making shit out of other shit. Specifically, accessories out of a pair of ruined tights.

A bow headband made from tights, made (and modelled!) by Megan Nielsen

I think I have mentioned before that I am the kiss of death for tights. The skin-coloured ones in particular never seem to last for more than one wear. I don't know what I do to them, but by the end of the day they're in tatters around my legs.

Here is a picture of me wearing my faaaavourite pair of tights. They're (or rather, they were, *sob*) pale, greyish blue, ribbed, unusual and surprisingly versatile. I also claim that they're vintage, on the grounds that I swooped on them when my Granny was having a wardrobe clear-out last year, and I'm pretty sure that she hasn't bought new tights this decade! Needless to say, despite surviving God-knows-how-many years in Granny's drawers (Er, as in chest-of-drawers...!), after five minutes in my possession they began to bear the scars of battle. I kept on wearing them throughout the winter and spring, darning the holes in the toes and ignoring the multiplying ladders, but the end was drawing nigh. I couldn't bear to throw them away, sentimental sap that I am (They were practically a family heirloom!), so when I stumbled upon Megan Nielsen's series of blog posts about re-fashioning old tights, I leapt at the idea.

Lovely, no? Here they are just before I hacked them to pieces:

It was a bit hard to chop into the tights, but I bravely chopped, and with Megan's help (I'm not going to go through how to do these projects because Megan's instructions are undoubtedly better than the mess you'd get if I tried to rehash them.) I made those tights into a headband, two necklaces and a pair of socks. It was ridiculously easy - the only time I ran into problems was when I tried to be clever and combine two of her projects into one and stick some completely un-necessary ruffles onto my socks.

Sewing on the train!

Modelling my new headband...

...and my new necklace

This plain white dress is the perfect canvas to show off my matchy-matchy accessories. I like being matchy-matchy. I might even wear the above with...