~ Sock Dreams ~

As many of you have learned through unfortunate accident, nylon stockings, especially 100% nylon styles, are very delicate. Careful care in wearing, washing and storage can help extend your stockings’ life.

If you’re particularly prone to snags, check your nails (fingers and toes!) for sharp spots and fix them with a file, then add a little lotion to any dry or rough areas of skin. You want to try and reduce the snaggable variables. It is a special kind of infuriating to realise you’ve made a run in your stocking just by putting it on! We used to carry awesome, super smooth gloves for putting on stockings, but they are no longer made so we can no longer offer them. But if you (like me) know you need all the help you can get in preventing snags, even simple satin gloves can help.

Yanking isn’t the nicest way to shove your legs in any sock and for nylon stockings that is especially true. Carefully gathering the stocking up onto your thumbs (the thin nature of nylons makes this pretty easy), gently slip your toes in and ease it up around your heel. From there on out it’s pretty simple, letting the nylon slip from your fingers as it encases your leg. Once your stockings are up, use a careful touch and the pads of your fingers to ease the seam into lining up.

A great tip for encouraging those back seams to line up is putting a dot of sock glue at the back of your heel, sort of anchoring it in place. Since sock glue is water-soluable, if you fear damage to your stockings while removing them, just lightly dampen the area you’ve glued before removing your nylons.

Since it can be hard to check how lined up you are (because twisting to look at the back of your leg twists your leg too, throwing everything off) sit yourself down and use a small mirror on the ground, or in your hand, to check the straightness of that seam.

It’s best to respect the stocking’s fibers and listen to how much they want to stretch. Sometimes a stocking wants to be an OTK, or just hang out in the middle of your thigh, not go all the way up to the top your leg. Pulling hard at the cuff and shortening garter belt suspenders too much will put undue stress on your stockings. Not, like, emotional stress—they are just bits of nylon—but when every fiber is pulled to its max from your toes up your leg, something’s gotta give and it’s going to be the integrity of your stockings.

What about washing and storing? And what if you do get a run? Some more tips and tricks after the jump! Read more »

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May is a marvellous month, with Emeralds, Lily of the Valley and Taurus as its symbols. Bold, dainty and terribly stubborn; which is a pretty good description of how this month is turning out for us in Portland, with blasting hot days, delicately warm nights and a mind of its own regarding the weather!

All this sun and April’s showers have made our world bright and green (and brought some of those May flowers too!). Which makes May’s gemstone very appropriate. Emeralds are green beryl, ranging from yellow-green to blue-green, but always green! And though we use the word “emerald” on only a couple of green styles, we have quite a wide representation of greens!

Clockwise from top: Opaque Solid Nylon Trouser Socks, O Basics, Harajuku Scrunchy Socks, N40s, Socklings, Kimi Wool Blend OTKs.

May’s flower, the lily of the valley, is like the shy cousin of the flamboyant lilies that dominate bouquets and their little bell shapes could easily be confused for any other sleepy-looking wildflower. The fleur-de-lis, on the other hand, is very recognisable. So we’ll let this stylised lily take center stage.

• Paris Trouser Socks •
• Snappy Fleur-de-Lis Garters •
• Paris Fleur-de-Lis Pantyhose •

Like Aries last month, the May’s constellation of Taurus isn’t as dignified in sock form as it is in star form. But dang is it adorable! Both of these cow socks even have grippy bottoms to help keep you stable.

• Moo Toes •
• Tubular Cow Socks •

As May moves on, spring will soon be over and, on the flip side, winter is coming for folks in the Southern hemisphere. So embrace these transitional days of spring and autumn while you can!

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When we talk about “stockings” as opposed to “socks”, we mean the high-nylon content styles that more often than not have to be held up with a garter belt.  Though most are sheer some, like the Lycra Cuban Heeled Two Tone Stockings (shown on the far right), are semi-opaque.

On top: Ultra Sheer Retro Backseam Stockings. Beneath, from left to right: Lycra Cuban Heel Stockings, Cuban Heel Thigh Highs, Lycra Sheer Cubans with Lace Up Tops, Lycra Cuban Heeled Two Tone Stockings.

Flattering, fancy and just the thing to finish off a dressy outfit, nylons have a fascinating history.  Though our focus here at Sock Dreams is on socks, we do carry and love stockings.  And we’re also big nerds who love to share history and facts.  Today I’ll share a quick overview of the history of nylons, with some helpful facts for folks interested in rocking these classic and classy stockings. If you want more info, there are great, in-depth, histories of stockings all over the place. I’m super partial to the Smithsonian’s Stocking Series.

Nylon stockings were introduced at the 1939 world’s fair by Dupont, who have a great little timeline with some awesome pictures from 1939. They decided against registering “nylon” as a trademark, so that the word would become synonymous with stockings.  Early stockings had back seams and when folks had to give up their nylon stockings for the war effort, they reproduced that backseam with leg makeup (great article at GlamourDaze about it!), creating the illusion that nylons were still covering their legs.  I love this picture we have on our Pinterest from the Library of Congress image archives, showing a barrel of nylons on their way to becoming parachutes and cords.

Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection. “Here’s where your parachute came from.“

It’s because of this temporary lack of nylon that we have the wide range of cotton stockings and tights we see today.  But that’s a story for another day!  We’re still talking about nylons.  Join us after the jump for comparisons of new nylon stockings to actual mid-century pairs and some helpful tips about these fantastic, feminine stockings.

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A good mama is a wonderful thing and a hard job. If you’ve got a great mom in your life you should let them know how fabulous they are all the time. And if you’re a rad mom, I hope you know how great you are. Mother’s Day is just one day out of the year (this year it’s May 12^th), but it’s a chance to really treat these wonderful folks.

We’ve got a Mother’s Day Favourites section, but most of those styles are the ones our moms like, and if your moms are like ours, they keep their fancy stuff pretty basic. They like comfy crews, cozy bedsocks, maybe a ‘crazy’ splurge on some hand-printed trouser socks.

• Meg Unconstricted Top Crew •
• New Zealand Bed Socks •
• Polonova Flower Trouser Socks •

But, the best gifts are the ones that you know the giftee would never think to get themselves. Something fancy, maybe a little more than they like to spend on themselves. Our Indulgences section is a good place to go for just that sort of thing. I’m going to be honest, these are our pricier styles. But they earn their price, with fabulous fibers, fit and construction. This is where the luxurious stuff lives.

That doesn’t mean you have to go wild picking something out for your moms. There are some great options under $25 that feel fantastic and look gorgeous. Plus, they’re practically basics, so you won’t get chided for going overboard.

• Multi-Lines Knee Highs •
• Orkney Angora Wrist Warmers •
• Philippe Matignon Silk Anklets •

Of course, if you can and do want to spoil your mom, we can help you there! Check out three sweet indulgences after the jump!

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They can be unsightly, those little balled-up bundles of fibers that build up on your socks. Where there’s wear, pills will happen; common causes are shoes rubbing against socks, where your thighs touch or really any spot that is subjected to abrasion.

Wool and acrylic are especially prone to pilling (though cotton, polyester and nylon like to do it too). Linen and silk are the safest from the perils of pilling. Wool has an advantage, as it is more likely to shed pill build-up. Synthetic fibers are tougher and more stubborn, keeping those pilled bits secure to the fabric. Washing pill-prone items inside out on a short, gentle cycle (or hand washing) helps prevent this kind of wear, but often it is inevitable.

However or whyever there are pills, they’re a problem that you can solve. One of the most common ways is with an electric sweater shaver. Electric sweater shavers are fun and kind of loud (which is also fun). They require batteries and are sort of like a teddy bear’s version of a beard trimmer. A lot of them are even made by the same companies who make electric face razors!

And one of those can bring some freshness back to a tired looking pair of socks or armwarmers, like this pair of Harajuku Arm Warmers. That area between the thumb and fingers gets a lot of wear and shows it.

But all it takes is turning on the sweater shaver and lightly running it over the arm warmer, either while wearing it or laying it flat. The key word here is lightly, just gently brush the shaver across the top. If you’re too rough you could put a hole in whatever you’re sprucing up, particularly if it is a delicate item.

And the pills are gone, turned into easily-disposed of fluff! The softer look of a much loved-and worn item doesn’t disappear, but the pills do. It even does a solid job removing all the pills on the heels of my poor old Extraordinary Thigh Highs, which have had a lot of hard wear.

Electric sweater shavers are definitely rad, but there have to be some non battery powered options out there, right? Tumblr Fairy Zaf prefers the Sweater Stone and I’ll walk you through that technique next. Why don’t you let us know your tips and tricks for removing pills? In looking up information on pilling I saw that some folks use the hook side of Velcro—have you tried it, does that work? I’ve definitely gone the sticky tape route myself.

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