The next stage after sewing is Dyeing and Boarding.
And this is where the manufacturing journey of tights and socks becomes very different.

Dyeing: Same Machine, Different Purpose

For both tights and socks, the garments are loaded into special mesh dyeing bags and placed into a dyeing machine.

Once inside, the hosiery goes through a high-temperature process where water acts as the medium for the interaction between the textile fibers, dyes, and processing chemicals.
For tights, a typical dyeing process includes several stages:

Scouring — removing machine oil, dirt, stains, and other residues from the surface of the knitted fabric.

Dyeing — dyes are introduced while the temperature is gradually raised, allowing the color to penetrate into the fibers. This is the moment when the tights go from greige to the final color.

Fixing — special fixing agents help improve the affinity between the dye and the fiber, so the color remains stable after processing. Deeper shades generally require more intensive fixing. Black, for example, typically requires considerably more processing than a skin-tone shade.

Softening — a finishing agent is applied to improve the hand feel and make the fabric smoother and softer.

For socks, although they also go through the dyeing machine, only the scouring and softening stages are normally required. Since the socks are knitted from pre-dyed yarns, the dyeing and fixing processes are not needed at the garment stage.

Same machine.
Very different purpose.

Then Comes Boarding

After dyeing process, both tights and socks move to Boarding.

In simple terms, boarding is where hosiery is given its final shape, dimensions, and appearance through heat, steam, and specially shaped forms. It helps remove wrinkles and gives the product the clean, consistent look expected from a finished garment.

But once again, the machines look very different.

For tights, the boarding arms are longer and taller, because they need to reproduce the shape and length of the human lower body.

For socks, the boarding arms are shorter and narrower, essentially reproducing the shape of one lower leg and foot.

The objective is the same.

The engineering behind it is not.

And Finally: Packaging

Once boarding is completed, the hosiery can move into packing.
This is another point where the difference in fabric construction becomes very visible.

Socks are generally made from more robust knitted structures. As a result, one common packaging method is to attach a paperboard top card directly to the sock, often using a sewing machine.

For most tights, especially sheer tights, this approach is much more difficult.

The reason is not simply that the fabric is “thinner.”

Sheer tights are typically knitted from very fine yarns in a fine-gauge, highly extensible structure. A concentrated point of tension — such as a stitch or fastening point through the fabric — can distort individual knitted loops or damage the yarn structure. Once a loop is compromised, the damage can propagate through the knitted structure as a run or ladder.

That is why sheer tights generally need a more protective packaging method.

Instead of directly attaching a card to the garment, the tights are usually folded around a support board, placed inside a protective inner bag or sleeve, and then inserted into the final retail packaging.

From the outside, these two products may look like simple variations of the same category.

But by this point in the factory, the difference is hard to miss.

Same raw material family. Same knitting concept. Same dyeing machine. Same finishing philosophy.

Yet the machines, processing conditions, shaping methods, and even packaging solutions can be completely different.

And that is what makes hosiery manufacturing so interesting.