Mirrored from The OEconomist. You can comment there or here.

Before I went on my overseas trip in July, I bought a few pairs of black cotton-lycra leggings from Target (Australian Target that is) in various lengths. After three months of traipsing around Spain, France and the UK and another at home since then they’re starting to look rather transparent around the crotchular area and threatening to split at the inner seams. Does anyone have tips for extending their life?

Darning doesn’t seem like it’d work, and I’m not sure if they’re patchable, though I’d be delighted to be shown I’m wrong. I suppose I could lay down another layer of black cotton jersey and machine-sew across it with a stretchy zigzag stitch? The more firmly I sew it, though, the less stretchy it’ll be. Sadly, I don’t think the construction of the leggings is such that you can turn them upside down or roundabout to distribute the wear elsewhere, so that method won’t work.

If I can’t make them last, what can I do with them before chucking them? I have a friend who cuts old t-shirts into yarn and knits dishcloths out of them, and of course they can always be cut up as cleaning rags or strips used to tie the tomatoes to their stakes, but I’d rather use those ideas as a last resort. The problem is that most of my uses for scrap fabric are for woven fabric, not knitted, so I never quite know what to do with old knits apart from sending them to the rag bag, even if parts of them are still quite solid fabric, which seems a waste.

Suggestions welcome (up to and including where to buy more friction-resistant leggings, with the caveat that I’m looking for large sizes, natural fibres, varying lengths from bike-short to ankle, and either Australian or with affordable shipping to here.)