Fun With Tights
Variations
Tights can be worn for more than just renaissance events! We include professional clowns, mimes, and other entertainers among our customers. Here are some ways to explore the wearing of tights for other events and occasions:
Wondering how to cover your legs under all that burlap and gauze you'll be wearing on Hallowe'en? Put away your sweat pants and old blue jeans, and try this:
Pick a base color of tights (no codpiece!) to wear against your skin. Then take a second
pair of tights of a different color and, using whatever sharp implements you
happen to have handy - scissors, pinking shears, a scalpel or chain saw - make
several slashes in the legs (being careful not to cut the seams in back - and
please take them off before you start cutting!). Very carefully pull on
the second pair over the first, so that the base color shows through the cuts on
the top layer!
Different characters might use different color combinations, like these:
- Ghoul - back from the grave. Base color: gray or brown. Top color: black, gray, or hunter green.
- Demon. Base color: red or black. Top color: black or red.
- Slashing victim. Base color: red. Top color: cream. (For extra effect, try hanging gauze soaked in stage blood from a few of the slashes, or "singe" the edges of the cuts with black or red spray paint. Ewwwwwwww!)
- Tiger. Base color: black. Top color: cream. (Use Rit dye for Orange.)
When wearing two pairs of tights like this, be sure to order the inside pair without the codpiece. If the outside pair does have one, you can open the seam of the inside pair to let you use the codpiece. You could also, if you like, reverse that, too.
Dyeing Tights
Our regular tights fabric is mostly cotton, which means it takes dye really well.You can use Rit dye or any one of many fibre-reactive dyes. The dye, and the method you use, is strictly up to you. We have our favorites, though:
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Broomsticking. Okay, not broomsticking, precisely, but similar. With you holding
your tights by the waist and a partner holding the tights by the feet, twist the tights
into a "rope". You can stop here and, using heavy twine or fabric scraps, tie knots around
the rope every 6" or so, or keep twisting until the tight-rope (Ha ha...oh, never mind...)
draws up into a ball. Tuck in toes and waist so the ball keeps it shape.
You can dye the tight-rope in the washing machine. With the ball, better just soak it. If the tights are wet when you start, the edges of the dye will be softer than if the tights are dry.
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Another use for a ball of tights. I'm sure this has a name, but darned if I
remember what it is. Scrunch your tights into a ball, and wrap the ball with heavy twine
so that it looks like a pumpkin. Soak 'em if you got 'em.
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Another use for the tight-rope. After twisting, use one very long piece of heavy twine,
and begin by tying a simple knot at one end of the tights in the middle of the length
of twine. Wrap both ends of the twine
around the back of the tights, bring them back to the front and tie a half-knot. Repeat
down the length of the tights - it'll look like a one of those hair-braids done with
a leather thong, but without the pretty beads.
