Abstract

This is a pair of women’s cut hosen of the type that would have been worn during the 13thcentury. They were cut based on a custom pattern, which is in turn based on an extant pair of hosen, and constructed from a linen/cotton blend and assembled by hand using linen thread.

Background

During the 13th century (my preferred time period), hosen were cut from woven fabric, asopposed to the knitted hosen that are the more direct antecedents to modern socks. It is generallyaccepted that women’s hosen were roughly knee-height and held up with garters fastened just below the knee. There exist a number of pairs of “short hosen” (Carlson 2005, Crowfoot &Staniland 2001) and there is later pictorial evidence of women wearing knee-length hosen(Limbourg 1413). Additionally, it is generally accepted within the SCA community that duringthis time, women did not usually wear any kind of “underwear” other than a smock/shift(Eustace); this means that they did not have a braiesgirdle to which to attach long (thigh-high)hosen.

Materials

These hosen are made from a very tightly woven medium-weight linen/cotton blend. Inorder to be perfectly documentable, they would have to be made from wool; I chose to use thelinen blend for two reasons. First, I had enough left over from making other garments to makehosen and not much else; second; this pair of hosen was something of a test of a new pattern-drafting technique and I did not want to waste expensive wool in case it did not work. I havemade a number of pairs of hosen in both linen and wool and wool is clearly the superior choice.They were hand-sewn with a 20/2 linen thread.

Design and Construction

The pattern for these hosen is based on the type known as“Nockert Type 4” (Carlson 1997) and is functionally equivalent to the“London Hose” (Carlson 1998; Crowfoot & Staniland 2001). Theyhave a leg that reaches to just above the knee and a foot that attachesat the front of the ankle. There are seams along the bottom of the footextending up the back of the leg, around the arch of the foot, and atthe toe. This particular pair of hosen was made from a pattern Idrafted based on measurements of my legs and is show in Figure 1.

Each piece begins as a trapezoid; the leg piece then has an arch cutout of the short (bottom) end to accommodate the arch of the foot; the foot piece is then fit intothe opening created by that arch and the back/bottom seam. The shapes of the pieces are

Figure 1: Hosen Pattern

Woman’s Cut Hosen

Alianor de Ravenglas

In fact, I made them to test out this method of drafting a hosen pattern.

illustrated in Figure 2; Figure 3 shows an extant stocking for comparison. There are three seamsin each of these socks. The main seam runs along the back of the leg and under the heel to the bottom of the arch; the foot of the stocking fits into the oval created from the cut arch and thisseam, as described above and pictured in Figure 4.The process for assembling a pair of hosen consists of sewing the bottom/back seam on the foot and the leg pieces separately, then fittingand sewing the two tubes (leg and foot) together at the arch. The archseam and the back/bottom seam cross each other under the arch of thefoot, as can be seen in Figures 5 and 6; Figure 7 serves as a comparisonto the extant example. Once the two pieces are together, I shape thetoes. On this particular pair of hosen, there was not a lot of taper to thefoot piece and so I had to do a lot of shaping on the toes. I do this by putting the sock on which I am working onto my foot inside out and pinning along the edge of my toes.I assembled these hosen by hand with linen thread. I used acombination of running stitch and back stitch; areas that take a lot of stress get back stitch exclusively and the rest gets running stitch with anoccasional backstitch for reinforcement. I finished the seams using a“run and fell” technique; after stitching the main seam, I trimmed half of the seam allowance andturned the remaining raw edge so that both raw edges are enclosed by the seam allowance. Thisedge is then stitched down using a hemstitch. In addition to enclosing the raw edges, this servesto reinforce the seams. I finished the top edge by turning a double-hem and stitching it downwith hemstitch. Because I was working with a thread that does not match the fabric, thefinishing stitches are visible; I made an effort to have them show as little as possible, but it’s not possible to camouflage them completely.

Figure 2: Hosen Pieces Figure 3: Drawing of Extant Hosen(Crowfoot & Staniland 2001, p. 188) Figure 4: Assembled Hosen, Inside Out

Alianor de Ravenglas Woman’s Cut Hosen2

Reflections

This was the first pair of hosen I made from a pattern based on measurements (as opposed toa draped pattern). The fit is a bit looser than what I am used to wearing, especially in the footand the ankle. I have not yet decided if I will end up tailoring them a bit more closely. Thehosen are not comfortable to wear with modern shoes, but feel perfect when worn withturnshoes.

Figure 6: Bottom of Hosen, Inside Out Figure 5: Bottom of Hosen, Worn Figure 7: Structure of Extant Hosen(Crowfoot & Staniland 2001, p. 189)