The Armour Archive

Following accepted wisdom, I've been bias-cutting wool hosen and getting quite a tight, sexy fit. I'm a small-to-mediumish girl, and I can get a pair of bias-cut hosen out of less than a yard of 60" fabric. It just occurred to me, however, that while this is reasonable to me, it seems like a waste to do this to cloth in my period (early 11th century), when obtaining fabric was a much more laborious process. I fret that I'm throwing a lot away when I'm bias-cutting. Generally, patterns from this period seem to avoid creating unnecessary waste.

So! I welcome your speculations:

Were early medieval hosen pieced? Seems sensible (and consistent with other finds around the period) to me, but some of the things on Marc Carlson's site (below) say otherwise. There seems to be a hose from Hedeby that's pieced along the trunk. (I can't figure out if this thing was bias-cut or a twill.)

Were they bias-cut as a rule? Only by the wealthy? Is this a place where you throw practicality out in the name of fashion/conspicuous consumption? Nockert Types 1 and 2 are both cut on the diagonal. Is this as practical with the (I think) narrower fabric widths of a slightly earlier period? Is there a way to cut hosen on the bias, piece them together, and not waste a ton of fabric? I suspect the latter might have something in it, but I'm stabbing in the dark, here.

Ylsa wrote: Is there a way to cut hosen on the bias, piece them together, and not waste a ton of fabric? I suspect the latter might have something in it, but I'm stabbing in the dark, here.

That depends. Are you making one pair of hosen, or are you a clothing merchant that only loses a bi ton the beginning and end of a bolt, having everything else line up along the bias?

The above is an interesting theory I heard from Master Emrys.

Good question, and an interesting theory! I don't know what someone in my situation would've been doing, but it's certainly intriguing to consider.

You can still piece bias cut hose, several of the diagrams on Marc's site show piecing even when they are called bias cut.

Yes bias cutting seems wasteful but think of what you could do with scraps. Hats are made of smaller pieces, what if you make another body garment the same color and use the scraps there when you piece a garment together.

And while economy of fabric was important there are scrap piles found in that era, not every inch has to be used all the time. Items like leather balls often have fabric scraps in them as stuffing.


Personally I keep all reasonably sized scraps for making hats to sell. It takes little to make a 6 gore hat from Birka or a pillbox hat from Greenland.

This brings up something I was wondering a while back, when I was trying to make a pair of joined hosen for myself.

For bias cutting, I had assumed that the imaginary front center line of each leg piece would be laid out at a 45-degree angle to the edge of the fabric. However, I realized this would work only for our wide modern fabrics of 45 to 60". Historical fabric was usually 20 to 24" wide, correct? However, on narrow fabric, if you lay the front center line of each leg parallel to the selvedge of the fabric, then the back seam of the leg will still end up on the bias, even if not true bias. The seam is what will actually be cut, so that's what needs to be on the bias.

I'll be giving this layout a try on my next pair of hosen.

Ylsa wrote:Following accepted wisdom, I've been bias-cutting wool hosen and getting quite a tight, sexy fit.
(...)
Is this a place where you throw practicality out in the name of fashion/conspicuous consumption?

Cutting at the bias is practical: it gives extra stretch. I guess it was seen as a necessary evil rather than a fashion thing.

Flittie: It seems to me that you would want the bias mainly at the front. If you bent your knees there is much more stretch needed at the front then at the back.

Alecks, that's a good point. Although there's more than one way to make room in the knee. It's possible to make the hosen snug but a little overlong, so that they can slide up and down the knee somewhat. That's what's done with tight sleeves to allow them to move at the elbow.

There may also be different techniques for cutting out upper-class hosen and lower-class hosen. The lower-class hosen in illustrations are often slightly baggy. I wonder if they were cut on only a partial bias or, possibly, occasionally, not on the bias at all.

I would still like to see a layout of full-size hosen on narrow (20") fabric to see how the bias would be accomplished.

Flittie wrote:This brings up something I was wondering a while back, when I was trying to make a pair of joined hosen for myself.

For bias cutting, I had assumed that the imaginary front center line of each leg piece would be laid out at a 45-degree angle to the edge of the fabric. However, I realized this would work only for our wide modern fabrics of 45 to 60". Historical fabric was usually 20 to 24" wide, correct? However, on narrow fabric, if you lay the front center line of each leg parallel to the selvedge of the fabric, then the back seam of the leg will still end up on the bias, even if not true bias. The seam is what will actually be cut, so that's what needs to be on the bias.

I'll be giving this layout a try on my next pair of hosen.

Well, I'm not sure about that. The hose from London, the ones described in Textiles and Clothing, are cut with the imaginary front line on the bias.

You want the bias to be up and down and side to side. It doesn't HAVE to be exactly 45 degrees - other angles still work.

Have you ever played with those Chinese finger traps? That's how the bias works. You stick your fingers in, and the harder you pull out, the tighter the cuffs become on your fingers. They're like a giant bias weave.

With hosen, the ankle is big enough to go over the foot when they're relaxed. But when you pull up the leg, the bias cut "traps" your ankle, it closes in around the ankle for the smooth fit.

I'm not a weaving expert, and maybe one can jump in, but I believe that some fabrics were woven wider. Consider the idea of piecing, and of women's hose being shorter, and turning the hose on the bias makes more sense.

Good reply, Charlotte. Actually, I'll be trying to make (lower-class) male hosen for myself (since I wear male clothes on the rapier field), so they'll be longer (though not nearly as long as those for a man).

If a shallow angle of bias works, that's what I'll try.

I guess Kass would know the answer, since she sells patterns for both upper-class and lower-class hosen.

Interesting-- thank you both! I also wear male clothes on the field. Perhaps I'll play around with different angles of bias as well.

In the C11th i'm not convinced bias cutting was essential, necessary or common practice.

Later medieval host had to be far far stretchier to work and so bias cut tabby or non-tabby weaves (hopefully teamed with a low tension spun fibre) are essential to solve the problem (the problem being that the fabric will tear horrendously).

With the above in mind the evidence for bias cut hose comes (from London at least) from the C14th.

I have never needed to bias cut woollen hose of the earlier style to fit (and i have made them for a number of sizes, these are stretched by my calf in use and that gives the right look compared with the illustrations and are as cloth efficient as possible. These do work even better in a twill weave and the evidence from around this period does seem to suggest that these were prevalent (tabby does exist but it's outnumbered).

Of course if you are working in silk or linen the fibre has no give and you don't stand a chance without bias cutting.

2d
N.

Nathan: what's the difference between 11th-century hosen (chausses?) and late medieval hosen that makes bias cutting unnecessary for the early hosen but necessary for the late hosen? Why is twill *not* good for late medieval hosen? I believe I've seen reenactors recommend a four-way-stretch twill for 14th/15th-century hosen.

Is it possible that earlier methods of cutting, with partial or no bias, survived for a longer time among lower-class people? I ask because I'm interested in commoners' clothing, and I've noted that, in artwork, early-16th-century peasants often have slightly baggy hosen.

Also, in the 16th century, hosen seem to be made of wool that's fulled enough to hold a raw edge without fraying (as I infer from slashed hosen of Landsknechts and others). I wonder whether that affects the cutting and pattern layout.

Flittie wrote:Nathan: what's the difference between 11th-century hosen (chausses?) and late medieval hosen that makes bias cutting unnecessary for the early hosen but necessary for the late hosen? Why is twill *not* good for late medieval hosen? I believe I've seen reenactors recommend a four-way-stretch twill for 14th/15th-century hosen.

From the textile evidence the use of twills seems to reduce significantly throughout the medieval periods and tabby starts to dominate. However the Paston letters specifically allude to a type of wool good for making hose out of, it would not surprise me if that was a loose spun, woollen twill of some form (bias cut tabby is horrendously cloth inefficient).

Structurally hosen that are higher in the leg have to cope with tension from multiple directions. With earlier hosen upper leg twisting is handled by the cords they are held up with (they only have to cope with the knee bending). Anything secured to the wast in several directions is under huge tension as you try to sit or bend.

Flittie wrote:Is it possible that earlier methods of cutting, with partial or no bias, survived for a longer time among lower-class people? I ask because I'm interested in commoners' clothing, and I've noted that, in artwork, early-16th-century peasants often have slightly baggy hosen.

Would make perfect sense, tailoring a pair of hose to fit well enough not to blow out seams is a real skill. Super-tight hose are a status symbol, they restrict movement & prevent heavy manual labour (I know from conversations with Sarah Thursfield that it's not just me that cannot sit in a properly fitted pair of C15th joined hose).

Flittie wrote:Also, in the 16th century, hosen seem to be made of wool that's fulled enough to hold a raw edge without fraying (as I infer from slashed hosen of Landsknechts and others). I wonder whether that affects the cutting and pattern layout.

Moving out of my period of interest here so speculating on limited basis. I'd wonder if the slashing helps reduce the tensions at work as well? The slashing would allow the top fabric to flex.

I'd like to clarify that I don't mean that all has had to be bias cut, but rather to mention that the bias in the front is what is meant by bias cut. Just to be clear and all...