Stockings & Garters - Not your usual lingerie style

Garters were made in April 2020 and Stockings were completed in May 2020

16th Century Stockings were typically made of linen, wool, or silk for the wealthy and were known as hose. For men, they could be the full leg or they could be joined with a pair of underwear built in (known as braies). For women, they were more like what we think of as over the knee socks. Garters were worn with them to help keep them up. Garters were often pieces of ribbon or woven trim that were tied around the calf or buckled to keep the stockings from sliding down the leg. Knit stockings were starting to become popular in the mid 16th century and there are an extant pair in a museum that were owned by Eleanor of Toledo, these can be found in Moda a Firenze.

I covet these stockings, so much so that I have commissioned a friend of mine to make me a pair since I DO NOT KNIT!!! There is a pattern available on Ravelry, if you do knit and would like to try your hand at making them. It can be found here: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/eleonora-di-toledo-stockings

While I wait patiently to receive my beautiful knit stockings, I will focus on a pair of bias cut linen stockings.

The stockings I made are based on an extant pair of boothose housed in The Met. The same pair of hose are described in Janet Arnold’s Queen Elizabeth’s Wardrobe Unlock’d on page 207 and are described as “White linen stockings, or hose, embroidered with colored silks and silver and gold metal thread. Possibly made without feet, or removed because they were worn out. Italian, late sixteenth century.” Close up shots of these hose are also shown in Patterns of Fashion 4 as item #66 on pages 52 and 107. I utilized a pattern that I drafted several years ago, making a change to it by adding a ¼ inch seam allowance all the way around that would allow me to serge the fabric prior to hand stitching. If you need help with drafting a pattern check out the tutorial here: https://medievaltailor.com/demonstrations/stockings/

If your not a math/numbers person, information on how to drape a pattern for stockings can be found in the Medieval Tailor's Assistant by Sarah Thursfield.

I used some handkerchief weight linen that was repurposed from a failed shirt that was started and never finished a couple of years ago because it was cut too short for the person it was intended for. The body panels of the failed shirt were large enough to get all of the bias cut pieces of the pattern for the stockings out of it. I also cut strips of fabric out of one of the side panels of the shirt to be embroidered.

I used the smaller version of the embroidery pattern from Il Burato on page 201 that is complementary to the pattern used on my drawers. I also used the same silk thread in purple and black to complete the embroidery on this piece that was used on the drawers as well as doing the same chain stitch.

This time, I used a water soluble interfacing to copy the pattern and apply it to the linen strips to help keep the pattern from warping in the hoop. Following completion of the embroidery, the strips were washed to remove the marker and interfacing.

After the embroidery was complete, I began by hand stitching the stockings together by first stitching the embroidered piece to the top of the leg using an insertion stitch to attach the strips at the top and the bottom to the leg. After the embroidered strips were applied I used a running stitch to apply the same venetian style lace to the tops of the legs over the embroidered strip.

Following attaching the embroidery and the lace I began hand stitching the toe piece to the foot, then the clocks across the top of the arch, followed by the heel and then the back seam of the leg all using a back stitch for strength.

After the structural stitching was completed, the back leg seam and the arch seam were flat felled.

The seam going around the footbed was flat felled to one side only with both pieces of fabric stitched up towards the body of the foot instead of under the foot. Flat felling was done for comfort during wear on the seams.

Repeat the process for the other leg, and there you have a pair of bias cut stockings.

As you can see in the picture above, I used a woven trim that I stitched buckles too to create a pair of garters to keep my stockings up. The process for my garters follows below.

I originally planned to do the band for the garters as a card woven band, however several of my cards have gone missing so I changed plans and decided to do a plain weave inkle band instead. I began by plotting out an inkle band through the inkle band pattern generator on https://carolingianrealm.blog/PatternGenerator.php . Then I warped my small inkle loom that works up to be about a five foot band.

I wove the band using black, white, and purple cotton crochet thread that was in my craft stash. After weaving was complete, I used fray check to seal the ends of the band and put a section in the center to be able to cut the band in half to make two garters. After the fray check was done drying, I recycled a set of brass buckles from a previous pair of leather garters that the strap had broken on because the leather was too thin.

I pushed the prong of the buckle through the band and hand stitched the strap together as well as the ends of the straps with a whip stitch through the area that was fray checked and a back stitch above the area that was fray checked for strength.

Completed garters.