Cut Hosen for Men and Women

Alianor de Ravenglas

Introduction
In this document you will find directions for making “cut hosen” of the type that are
commonly seen in 12th-14th century Western European clothing. When worn by men,
they are “thigh highs” that are attached to the braiesgirdle by points. When worn by
women, they are “knee socks” that are held up by means of a garter fastened just below
the knee.
Vocabulary
You will need to know a number of terms for this handout to make sense.
Grain/Bias: A woven fabric consists of a warp and a weft - two sets of threads that sit at
90° angles to each other. The direction of either of
these sets of threads is called the grain; an
imaginary line drawn at 45° to the grain is the bias.
This is illustrated in Figure 1.
Draping: the process of patterning a garment on the body.
Braies: Men’s undergarments. These are usually held up
by the braiesgirdle.
Points: Ties that are used to attach hosen to the
braiesgirdle. Figure 1: Grain versus Bias
Garters: Strips of fabric, tabletwoven braid, or leather used
to snug men’s hosen and hold up women’s hosen.
Supplies
To make a pair of hosen, you will need:
• Standard sewing equipment (scissors, needle, thread, pins, measuring tape,
marking pencil or chalk)
• Permanent marker or some other way of making indelible marks on fabric
• 1-3 yards of “scrap” fabric (depending on fabric width, short or long hosen, and
size of hosen-wearer) for making the pattern
• The ability to do some basic math
• 1-3 yards of medium-weight woven fabric (same quantity as above)
Fabric Selection
Cut hosen are by definition made from woven fabrics. Yes, using a knit will give
you a closer fit, but knit fabrics were not used in this way during the middle ages. I
recommend a medium-weight fabric and have made hosen from both linen and wool;
of these, wool is the most historically accurate choice.1 Wool also simply works better -

1 I can’t prove that they DIDN’T make hosen out of linen; however, there exist remnants of woolen hosen.
wool is a stretchier fiber than linen, and this carries through to stretch on the bias.
Hosen can be almost any color and were often brightly colored.2
Patterning Hosen
There was a time when I draped every pair of hosen I made individually. Then I
came to my senses and started making
patterns. I recommend creating a separate A: Hipbone to floor
pattern for each individual for whom you B: Circ. of largest part of
will be making hosen. There are two ways thigh
to go about making the pattern. You can C: Circ. of knee
either draft a pattern from measurements or D: Circ. of largest part of
you can drape the pattern on the individual. calf
E: Circ. of ankle
In both of the explanations that follow, I will
F: Circ. of foot at front of
reference the points and lines illustrated in ankle
Figure 2; the result of both explanations is a G: Heel to F
pattern that looks roughly like the one H: F to toes
pictured in Figure 3. I: Top of knee to floor

Draping a Pattern
If you choose to go the draping route,
take about a yard of scrap fabric. To drape Figure 2: Points and Lines
the leg piece of the hosen, rotate that scrap for Measuring and Draping
fabric 45° (so that it’s hanging on the bias)
and pin the top corner to the waistband of
your victim’s client’s undergarments. Wrap the fabric around the leg, pinning or
basting a seam at the back center. Do this carefully, and avoid the
temptation to make the hosen skin-tight; in particular, the ankle will
seem like it is too loose, but it has to be for the ball of the foot to be able
to fit through it.3 The main piece (and therefore the back seam) should
reach the floor and curve under the foot to the point where lines G and
F intersect (basically at the instep). The front of the hosen will not lie
nicely across the ankle at this point - the fabric will be all bunchy and
messy. In this bunchy mess, mark line F (the curve over the instep).
Have your client remove the leg and make any adjustments necessary.
Once you’re relatively satisfied with the fit of the leg (you will still be
able to tweak it later), trim off the excess fabric at the back and inside
the curve you drew over the instep (but not too closely - you still want
Figure 3: room to adjust and you need to leave seam allowances!). You will now
Draped pattern use one of the large excess pieces to drape the foot of the hosen. This
cut from muslin piece extends from the toes to line F (and will be joined to the leg at line
F). Working on the bias, wrap the fabric around your client’s foot and

2 Eustace, 2007.
3 How snug you can make the ankle really does depend on how wide the client’s feet are. My feet are
fairly narrow and so the ankles of my hosen can be pretty snug; my husband’s feet are pretty wide at the
ball and his hosen ankles are always very baggy.
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pin/baste a seam along the bottom of the foot. This seam should extend for the full
length of line H (all the way to the end of the longest toe). Then pin/baste a straight
line across the toe of the hosen foot.4 Once you’re satisfied with the fit of everything,
mark your seam lines and trim the excess fabric, making sure to leave enough around
the seam lines for the seam allowances.
Drafting a Pattern from Measurements
The other option available to you is to draft a pattern based on measurements off the
leg; this technique still requires a bit of custom fitting to get a very snug fit. This
technique begins with the following set of measurements (refer to Figure 1 for
illustrations):
• Length of the hosen (for long hosen, line A +
line G; for short hosen, line I + line G)
• Leg circumference at top of hosen (for long
hosen, line B; for short hosen, line D)
• Leg circumference at knee or calf, whichever
is bigger (line C or line D)
• Circumference of foot at instep (line F)
• Height of the instep (line F / 3)
• Distance from longest toe to instep (line H)
Using these measurements, sketch out the
outline of your hosen as pictured in Figure 4. At
this point you should work with roughly straight
lines; you will fit the curves of the leg later. The Figure 4: Drafted pattern sketched out
lines that you draw in this process will more or less
be your seam lines; at this point you should cut out the pattern making sure to leave
about half an inch for your seam allowance. Now it is time to do some more detailed
fitting. Wrap the hosen leg around the recipient’s leg as
described in the section above and pin until the desired fit is
achieved; do the same with the foot. You will want to pay
particular attention to the curve over the instep, and you will
find that the “corner” at the heel works best as a smooth curve
rather than a right angle. Once you have the fit you like, trace
out the seam lines (as marked by your pins and/or initial
sketched lines) and trim down the excess fabric, leaving
enough for your seam allowances. At this point, you can
either leave the pattern “whole” or you can cut it in half and
ultimately cut your hosen on the fold, as pictured in Figure 5.5
Figure 5: Drafted pattern

4 This is a change from the pattern pictured in Figure 2; I have found that it’s easier to work with simple
trapezoidal pattern pieces and do this fine fitting on the final garment if at all.
5Note again the change in the foot pattern between the pattern pictured in Figure 2; in the new method,
the foot is rectangular.
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Assembly
Whichever of the cutting methods you followed, you should
now have a working pattern for your hosen! Once you have used
your new pattern to cut out a pair of hosen, you will obviously
have to put them together. Hosen are best assembled by hand. It
might be possible to do so using a sewing machine (I confess I have
never tried), but some of the joins get pretty fiddly and would be
hard to manipulate on the machine. I use a combination of
running stitch and backstitch to do my hand-assembly; points of
stress (the beginnings and ends of seams, the entire join of the foot
to the leg, the toe seam) get backstitch exclusively; long seams get
running stitch with the occasional backstitch thrown in to
strengthen the seam.
The sewing of the hosen is pretty straightforward. You can Figure 6: Completed
either attach the foot to the leg and then sew one long seam from short hosen, inside out
top to toe, or you can turn the leg and the foot into separate tubes
and then sew them together at the arch seam. Whichever method you use, you should
be sure not to stitch over your seam allowances; you will need
them free to for seam finishing later. Once the hosen are
completely assembled, they will look like the one pictured in
Figure 6, with a seam running down the back of the leg and
along the bottom of the foot, one around the instep, and a toe
seam.
After you have the hosen assembled, I recommend checking the
fit; at this point it is still easy to make any adjustments that are
necessary. Once you are satisfied with the fit, you will want to
finish the seams in some way. My preferred method is a “run
Figure 7: Run and Fell and fell” seam - you have already done the “run” part, now you
Seams just need to “fell” it. To do this, trim down one half of a pair of
seam allowances to about half its original size. Fold the un-cut
half around the now-cut half and stitch them down using either a
running stitch or a hemstitch. This process is illustrated in Figure 7. Where the back
seam and the instep seam come together, you will simply finish one seam first (I usually
do the back seam first) and then incorporate that finished seam into the felling of the
second seam, as can be seen in Figure 8. Often people question me about how the bulk
of two seams coming together feels on the bottom of the foot, but I have found that they

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press almost completely flat as they are worn and I
don’t feel them at all.
Once the seams are finished, you will need to
hem the top of the hosen and decide how you plan
to affix them to your braiesgirdle. I have used two
methods to achieve this: points sewn to the top of
the hosen and then tied around the braiesgirdle, and Figure 8: Bottom of hosen, inside out
eyelets in the hosen through which you pass points
that are are affixed to the braiesgirdle. Of these two
options, the eyelet is probably the more authentic. In
either case, I recommend reinforcing the top of the
hosen (where it will be under stress from the pull of
the points) with some scrap fabric. If you choose to
make an eyelet, it should be done in such a way that
you don’t break the threads (with an awl).
Modifications for Women’s (short) Hosen
Up to this point, I have given directions Figure 9: Bottom seam of hosen
assuming that you are making men’s long hosen.
This is because the process for short hosen is almost
identical. Obviously you cut them shorter - measuring line I in Figure 2 rather than line
A, and you need less fabric. Draping short hosen is a bit more difficult because you
can’t just pin the top to modern undergarments but it can be managed. The tops of
short hosen are cut straight across and I just finish them with a double-rolled hem.
Wearing Your Hosen
Men’s long hosen, as the directions indicate, are full-length and worn tied to the
braiesgirdle. The legs of the braies are then tucked down into the hosen so that the
whole leg is covered. This does occasionally make the leg look lumpy, but this is more a
function of how the braies are constructed than of the way that the hosen are
constructed. These hosen may or may not be gartered below the knee, depending on
desired time period and fit.

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 Figure 10: Men’s Long Hosen, with and without garters

Women’s short hosen, on the other hand, must be gartered to stay up. These garters are
fastened just below the knee, and the excess length is rolled down and tucked in under
the garters.

Figure 10: Short hosen, worn.

In all cases, hosen can be worn with modern shoes but they are much more
comfortable with medieval footwear.
In closing…
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at saramichelef - at - gmail - dot -
com; I can often provide “tech support” over e-mail. And finally, I leave you with the
following imponderable: What is the singular of “hosen”?

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Sources Cited
maistre Emrys Eustace. “Shert, Trewes, and Hose III: Chosen Hosen”. http://
www.greydragon.org/library/underwear3.html (Accessed 23 May 2008).
maistre Emrys Eustace. 2007. “Shert, Trewes, and Hose III: Chosen Hosen”. Class
taught at Aethelmearc Aecademy, July 2007.
Maitresse Muriel de Chimay. 2001. Personal communication.
Maitresse Muriel de Chimay. 2006. Personal communication.

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