5 Ways to Repurpose Old Tights

Recital season is upon us! Not only do you get to showcase all your hard work, but you also get brand new tights. There is nothing more satisfying than putting on a brand new pair of ballet tights. But what do you do with your old beat up pair of tights?

Instead of throwing away the old pair, that will take a long time to decompose in a landfill, here are five ways you can repurpose your old tights:

Create Tight Socks 

For when you need to wear tights with shoes but don’t feel like wearing tights, cut off the bottoms of your tights to create tight socks. These are perfect for when you want to break in pointe shoes around your house or you’re wearing heels in class. If you put real socks on while in your pointe shoes or heels you will stretch out the material making them too loose when you wear them with tights. By cutting off the ends of the tight, you can protect your feet from blistering and help minimize stinking up your shoes without having to pull on a pair of tights. 

Freshen Up Your Dance Bag

How bad does your dance bag smell? Probably pretty terrible. Create little aroma fresheners by cutting off the feet of your tights and filling them with aromatic ingredients and baking soda. Tie off the ends and place them in your shoes or just lay them in your bag… your roommates and mom will thank you! 

Make A Compression Shrug

If you want to have a little extra support for your “girls,” you can create a compression shirt out of your tights. Flip your tights upside down, so that the legs are pointing toward the sky. Determine how ling you want your arm sleeves to be and cut the legs off to have your desired length left. Then cut out the crotch to make a neckline. Finally you are ready to put it on like a shirt, putting your arms through the old leg holes and your head through the old crotch. 

Polish Your Heels

Get your heels recital ready by using your old tights to polish your leather heels. Also protip, if your heels are severely scuffed use a Sharpie in the color of your shoes to fill in the worn fabric and then if they are leather polish over the heel to make it shine! If your shoes aren’t leather, I would spot test an area with polish, because sometimes the polish will discolor or come off synthetic fabrics. 

DIY Pointe Shoe Dehumidifier

Just like you put your phone in a bag of rice to absorb water, you can create a rice pouch that absorbs your pointe shoe sweat as well! Fill the bottoms of your tights with rice and stick them in your pointe shoes after class. Be careful not to fill the tights with too much rice, as you don’t want to distort your pointe shoes. Also, do make sure you leave your pointe shoes out to dry after class to prevent them from moulding or becoming soft. 

There are even more ways to repurpose your tights and we would love to hear your ideas in the comments!

In addition to repurposing your tights, you can also donate them (if they are gently used without rips, stains, etc.). Here are a few groups that take tights and old gently used dancewear:

• Dance Donations
• Donate 2 Dance
• Ask your studio owner or call up thrift stores