New & Improved diagonally striped stockings

 Almost 4 years ago I tried to make a pair of diagonally striped stockings, and they were bad. Really bad. I was excited about them at the time, but I don't think I wore them more than twice.
The fabric was thick and not very soft, the seams were horribly bulky, and they had almost no stretch. It was a 1 way stretch knit cut on the bias, which made it almost impossible to get my foot through the ankle part.

So, a couple weeks ago, I made a new and better pair. I painted the stripes on myself, so they're exactly the width I wanted, and I didn't have to cut the fabric off grain.

my sample.

This time I got a softer knit that stretches in both directions. It's also a much better colour match for the fashion plate I was copying from. I used the same pattern as before, but trimmed it down a bit to account for the extra stretch.

I traced the side pieces of the stockings out, and put marks along the edge to indicate where the stripes go. I laid out strips of painters tape to mask the space in between stripes, and painted them in using speedball fabric printing ink and a stiff brush.

After it dried I ironed the ink to heat set it, cut out the sides and bottoms, and put them together with the serger.

I basted all the seams before serging them, to make sure the stripes lined up correctly.

The stripes are a tiny bit patchy in places, but they all lined up perfectly!

And I have enough fabric left to make another pair if I so choose.

The coat that goes with these is done too, and I will post about it soon!