Aside from a pair of cotton hose I made many years ago (which mostly worked), I've never really made proper hose. I've cheated with cotton/lycra blends that look the part and have just the right amount of stretch, but are still a cheat. I've also done the cotton jersey cheat. This time I want to do my hose up properly, so I'll need to find some good stretchy wool that won't cost an arm and a leg. That's always been the difficult part of this project.

added by Lorenzo Petrucci on Jan 6 2009

I ordered some 54" burgundy wool twill for this , and ran it through the wash. It came out 45" - 48" wide and is now stretchy on the grain. Very interesting. More discussion in the link.

added by Lorenzo Petrucci on Jan 9 2009

As it turns out, I was able to cut the hose without laying them out on the bias. They're slightly off-grain to fit both legs side-by-side with minimal waste, but there's plenty of stretch.

The top of each leg is faced with linen. The linen is attached only at the top and the back seam, with the free edge of the linen being selvedge. This is supported by the Piero della Francesca fresco "Burial of the Wood".

The feet are constructed with a seam across the top of the instep and a separate sole. I didn't make a pattern for the sole, since my feet are always available for tracing.

All seams were whip stitched down on the inside. The wool fulled up enough that they didn't need to be turned under.

I'll get pictures of them being worn as soon as I finish up some new points.

added by Lorenzo Petrucci on Jan 11 2009

I'm making some new points to go with these. I warped up 96" of cotton crochet yarn on the loom to do a tubular tablet weave. I ended up with 81" of nice tight 1/8" cord. I've used 12" points in the past, so I'll need to weave bout this much again to get the full set of 10 points I'll need for both legs. I plan to make brass aglets for the points, as soon as I find a local source for the brass.

added by Lorenzo Petrucci on Jan 11 2009