Sayyeda Samia al-Kaslaania
Copyright January 2011, Julia May
I have had the bug to make a fourteenth century Western European houppelande and accoutrement for a few years. Journeyman’s Rest, one of my households, has been trying to get us all dressed up like this, and we’ve progressed diligently but not to the end of the journey. The few things holding me up personally are the cotehardie, appropriate headwear, and the hosen. I started back in the day by tablet-weaving garters for my partner and myself.
This year I had the impetus to make Anglo-Saxon garb and decided that hosen would be an appropriate addition.
This fabulous website had more details than I needed for something that won’t be integrated into my regular garb: Chosen Hosen. Instead I used this article to get the idea of the shape, noting the bias runs along the shin bone: Making Medieval Cut Hosen. There was no way I would have seams under my feet (it would drive me crazy), so I simply drew out my footprint and added a seam allowance. The seam would be around the edge of my foot similar to shoes. I then measured my calf and the desired length of my hosen (from the floor, along my ankle to my knee, adding some to roll over the garters). I cut two pieces on the bias which accommodated these measurements which I marked with a center line. These were pinned around my leg and I started pinching out fabric. Once it kind-of fit I stitched along the pin marks and tried another fitting. As you can imagine, this kind of draping is a fast and wasteful process.
Not knowing the period method to finish hosen, I left the top edge unfinished (the bias doesn’t unravel).
