Hole-y tights upcycled into new treasures

As I've mentioned before, Annika loves to wear skirts and dresses, and she has an impressive collection of tights to go with them.  There are 13 pairs pictured here in her drawer, plus 3 not pictured.  The majority of them came from my mom, who found a great deal last year when she was in the States (3 pairs for $10) and bought 9 pairs for Annika (so sad they didn't come in my size!).  However, as you probably saw yesterday, they're not all in great condition anymore.  The toes are usually the first to go - then what?  Seems like a shame to just throw them away, so today I went looking for ways to "upcycle" tights with holes in the toes.

I found two different ideas - both great and very easy.  The first idea is the simplest - turn your tights into "fingerless" gloves by simply cutting off the legs and toes and adding a small hole in the heel for your thumb to go through. I absolutely love the second idea I found - turn your tights in leggings.  This took a little longer (about half an hour with my sewing machine, since I'm a little out of practice), but they turned out great (forgive me for the poor lighting in my photos - it's really the same pair of tights, despite the color differences).

Annika loved my new creations.  The fingerless gloves are a little big on her (understandably, since her arms are smaller than her legs), but they've already been referred to as "princess gloves" and a "cast" for a broken arm.  I'm thinking they'll get lots of play as dress up items.  The leggings are great, and I can see her getting a lot of wear out of them.  I'll probably do this with all her other tights, as she wears them out.  Even the ones that are too short for full-length leggings would make good capri leggings for those "in-between" type days (which sadly it looks like we are past - brrr it's chilly today!).

Hurray for upcycling!