Shortening machine knitted tights - will they ladder?

A lady called to inquire if I could cut the feet out of a pair of machine knitted tights for her small daughter.  Her daughter does ballet, and the tights were for ballet, but she wanted the feet removed so she can wear them normally.  She had taken them to a clothing alteration shop and was told they could not be altered, because they would ladder.

They can be altered with just a little care.  Normally if I was shortening something that was a machine knit, I would sew a row of stitching just above the cut line, but because these had feet, I decided to cut the feet off first, then stitched above the new cut line, I then overlocked just below the stitch line, turned and stitched the hem up, sewing topside, and sewing with my button hole foot.  I learned this little trick in my shops.  The normal domestic sewing machine foot can tend to slip on a stretch fabric, so one day I thought "what about the plastic buttonhole foot"?  It has those little ridges underneath, and they then to grip onto the fabric stopping any slide.  If you sew topside, in other words, you are sewing on the right side of the fabric, and the hem is underneath, you will get a beautiful stitch.

Once you have the first row of stitching done, go back and sew a second row next to the first, using a reference point on the foot to guide you, keeping the same distance from the first row of stitching.

Happy altering

Judith Turner