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by Brenna
September 30th, 2011
Sock Glue!
Whether your socks slide down, roll down or somehow magically materialise below where you want them to be (and where you put them this morning, dangit!), it’s frustrating business. But garters aren’t always an option, so when you want your socks to stay put, it might be time to turn to sock glue, like It Stays! (and it does!).
Two words of note before we get into the how-to:
I very much do not recommend sock glue if you don’t shave your legs, based on personal experience. It can pull at hair and be ouchy.
Zaf, over at our Tumblr, has these very sage words of advice:
“A thing to remember with the Extraordinaries—and, indeed, any long sock—is not to try to pull it up too much. If you try to stretch it higher than the fabric wants to go, it will want to move back to a comfortable, not stretched-out position and pull too much on the glue. This is a big reason why long socks slip; just because you can stretch a sock up to the top of your thigh, it doesn’t mean it will stay there.”
Now, after the jump Rosalind and I will show you how sock glue can help keep your socks from sagging like this.
First, get your wonderful It Stays! sock glue.
Now, pull your socks (in this case, the O Woolies in Grey) up to where they’re supposed to be. Keep Zaf’s advice in mind and don’t pull up too far or hard. Then fold down the top a bit, like you were going to cuff them. This gets the socks out of the way for the next step.
Now, apply that glue! Zaf likes a large patch on either side of the knee. Rosalind likes to circle around a couple of times—in the picture on the right, below, you can see the shine of the glue from the first pass around.
Pull the socks back up and gently press into place, securing the socks against the glue.
And ta-dah! Socks that stay up without garters.
Now, I know that folks have found more uses for sock glue than just socks and all have their own ways of applying the glue—so how do you get sock glue to work for you?
23 soxy thoughts:
The question I have is how does it work for us guys? A wouldn’t want to have a band of hairlessness on my legs not to mention the pain of the removal.
September 30th, 2011 at 11:57 am
Oh! Nevermind!! (I sound like Emily Latella!!) I didn’t read your post closely enough.
September 30th, 2011 at 12:01 pm
@Bob—Ha! No problem! What I prefer is a straight up, no-nonsense sock garter, like the Simply Adjustable Sock Garters. You can cuff the sock over it to hide the garter too, for a sleeker look.
September 30th, 2011 at 1:03 pm
Do you happen to know if any of the ingredients are animal-derived? Thanks!
September 30th, 2011 at 1:09 pm
@Lisa – According to the bottle there are only 4 ingredients, all of which are vegan and non-toxic.
September 30th, 2011 at 3:37 pm
Plus-sized ladies should pass on this. Did not work at all and just made my legs sticky all day.
I think the key is to use it on socks that are so big they just plain won’t stay up without help.
September 30th, 2011 at 4:12 pm
I *heart* sock glue! I use it to hold up mostly knee highs, I go all the way around. It also works good to hold down leggings that want to sneak above my knees. I was worried I would find it annoying or painful to remove but since it comes off with just water this is not a issue:) This product is awesome and works great all day… and I move around at work a lot!
September 30th, 2011 at 4:16 pm
I am plus sized and have used sock glue many times with success. It works well on cotton blends for my over the knee socks. The trick is to not pull them up too tight as stated in the original blog. It basically keeps the tops of the socks from rolling down.
September 30th, 2011 at 5:00 pm
i am also plus-sized and sock glue keeps the tops of my socks up rather than rolling down to cut off my circulation.
@Robin—Oh, we’re sorry to hear that it didn’t work for you!
Some legs, no matter the size or shape, just hate keeping socks up. Mine are like that and I’ve pretty much given up on most over the knee socks unless I’m wearing my garter belt.
@Sarah—Using it to hold down leggings?! Smart. We’ve been wowed by the uses folks have been sharing in the Facebook post for this Sock Journal entry!
@Kris & @Gee—I’m glad that sock glue works for you in keeping that annoying roll-down from happening! More than socks that slide down, rolling cuffs are the most frustrating thing.
I use this sock glue a LOT for a ton of different things.
This sock glue is really great on the go, I’ve had things happen where, even though I’m using sock glue, my sock gets messed up or slides down or whatever, but I’ve never had to reapply the glue on the go! The glue seems to stick to your leg well enough that you can just pull your sock back up and stick in to place, and it stays just as well as the first time. The glue also washes off your skin really well with soap and water, and you’d never notice you had glue on your skin before.
I also use the glue for holding up strapless bras (because, lets face it, those slide down all the time!), and for shaping dresses in the front for more cleavage cover (just apply onto your skin where you want to press the dress down!). One of my favorite dresses fits me perfectly, except for the fact that the straps are just a little too long. I just apply a little sock glue to my skin and then press down the straps in the back so that they look nice, but help the dress fit to me better.
You can do amazing things with this sock glue, and it seems to last for such a long time, too! This stuff is really great, also, if you have a creative kid who wants some fun string designs attached to their body. It is good to note, though, that it can tug on hair just a little when removing the fabric (or string) from your skin, but even though I have sensitive skin I haven’t had much of a problem.
OMG, this Halloween theme
!! <3)
Um, I’m not sure what happened to my comment but it was longer! Oops
)
I meant to ask if you think this would work for layering? You know, to glue an otk or thigh high on tights? Because I usually wear OTKs layered over tights and this might help to prevent some styles from slouching. I might try with some old tights, just in case.
Another plus-size pair of legs weighing in. I LOVE sock glue!
Just bought my first bottle, and in the space of a week I’ve gone from occasionally wearing my sock dreams socks maybe once a month with garters to wearing my OTKs four days this week. (I’m wearing my tie-dye OTKs right now!)Loving the Samhain theme too, btw!
@Miss Musaranha—That is an excellent question! I don’t think any of us Dreamers have tried using sock glue to hold up socks over tights (tights often do a good job of holding socks up on their own), but in theory I’d say that nylon-heavy blends like the Leg Avenue Striped Tights or the Opaque Tights would probably work best, since their surface is a little slicker and not as absorbent as cotton tights would be. Let us know how your experiment works out!
@Lindsay—Isn’t this the prettiest theme? It makes me even more excited about what time of year it is! We’re so glad to hear that sock glue is helping you rock your tall socks!!
This stuff is amazing. When I did Irish dance in high school, I used similar stuff to keep my socks up (and stay up they did, even through all the sweat).
Ten years later, I joined a Rocky Horror cast as a female Rocky. The only bathing suit I could find in September in the Mid-South was a triangle top that did not agree with my 34F sized chest. About a month before that I ordered some new sock glue to keep some thigh highs up for a costume, and decided to take my chances with it to keep my bikini top on during shows.
It worked like a charm, and I used it until the day I had to quit the show due to going back to school.
How would this work on fuzzy-legged ladies? And does it ruin any socks?
My very first note before recommending sock glue is “I very much do not recommend sock glue if you don’t shave your legs, based on personal experience. It can pull at hair and be ouchy.”
We haven’t found sock glue to ruin any socks—though more delicate stockings should be carefully removed and not just yanked off (which would ouch you as much as the stocking), if you’re ever worried, using a little warm water will help release the glue.
As an Irish dancer, I’ve been using sock glue to hold up my performance socks for years, but just this year did I realize how helpful they were for my knee-highs and OTKs. My hair was so light that I didn’t shave my legs until high school, so I have plenty of experience using sock glue on hairy legs. Yes, it hurts a bit when you take them off, and the glue sticks in the hair, but it won’t rip any hair off and you can just use a washcloth and some warm water afterwards to take off the glue. I honestly think the advantage of perfectly placed socks is worth the little bit of pain in removing those glued to hairy legs.
November 2nd, 2011 at 10:57 pm
@Hope—I’m glad that not all hairy-legged folks are stuck without sock glue. I think I’m just too sensitive or aware of it. And Irish dancing is a fantastic test of sock glue’s stay-up-ability!
Also worth noting: sock glue (and other body adhesives) just don’t work with some people’s body chemistry. This is true for me — sock glue, fashion tape, all that stuff is basically useless. It’s definitely a minority of folks, but still fair to mention.
(That said, my bottle still goes with me to conventions and has gotten quite a bit of costume use — it’s just other people using it instead.
)
@Charis, that makes sense, thanks for mentioning that! And how sweet of you to keep sock glue on hand, that’s like when I go to conventions I always have safety pins—best quick fix!
This is pretty cool, but I have a serious fetish for sagging baggy socks
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