So. There has been drawing, and thinking, and staring at photos, and cutting out, and pushing bits of paper around, and then drawing on larger pieces of paper, and more cutting out, and more arranging and re-arranging and cutting other bits and then, finally, drawing lines with charcoal around the pieces of paper. 

In general, I am no fan at all of paper patterns - I prefer the construction right on the fabric and play it by ear method. But in this case, where the aim is to get close to the original and there's not much prior experience on my side on how to place pattern bits, and with limited amounts of fabric (easily enough to do this, but not enough to botch the cutting! The fantastic fabric, by the way, was woven by the equally fantastic Marie Ekstedt Bjersing, and it was such a lovely experience to follow her process.)

Well. There you go.

Most of the bits line up very nicely to leave some few but not-too-small leftover pieces from where to cut the foot bits. Not pictured here are the possibly necessary toe parts for the feet of the hose, and the surely necessary small triangles for the ankle area. All the rest... is there. Now I only need to cut.

But first... chocolate. And a deep breath. And potentially a night's sleep, and then, then - cutting! 

...while the little cat will have our upstairs neighbour to look after her. There's cat food freshly prepared (and frozen) so she also can't complain about that. (Well, complaining is always a possibility. She's a cat, after all.)

The test hose are still missing the finishing touches on the feet, as this and that came up and somehow I haven't managed to finish - but that will happen in the next few days. The main plan is all done, though, and the reports from the weaving are all sounding very, very good - and like the scary cutting bit coming up soon.

My test fabric was wider than the original was, and the reconstruction fabric will be, but I did lay the pieces out like on a more narrow fabric. Same with the mini version, which gives a nicer image of how, approximately, the pieces are cut: 

Not drawn in here are the soles for the foot parts, the codpiece parts, the small triangles for the feet, and the waistband plus the extra bits for the front slit. Also not drawn are the toe pieces for the top of the feet, should they be necessary - I'm still not a hundred percent sure about that, but will be once that part is also done.

The codpiece is also still up to some potential tweaking. It stays interesting. 

I will be back on the blog next week!

The test hose is almost done - one foot piece is under construction, the second one still has to be done, otherwise about everything is finished. It does fit very well - only the legs have the tendency to twist around the wearer's legs when worn. This should be much better (read: gone, hopefully) once the feet are on.

The upside of the twist: There's some extra room, due to folds in the fabric, at the knee region. It might also be an effect of the fabric (which is, in fact, rather thick and stiff). Or it might be an error in my reconstruction. Or it might be an error in the pattern drawing in the publication. 

Once the feet are both on, and fit properly, we will see how it works, and looks. 

The fabric, meanwhile, is being finished and made ready at some place up in beautiful Sweden, and soon it will be all finished and washed and dried and on its way down south to me... which is when the real fun will begin.

The sprang piece is also progressing, though I don't know if I want to call it "nicely" - it does look very much like I will not be able to do the full amount of rows, as I am quickly running out of free thread space now. I have already progressed to using a knitting needle for the picking hand, while the holding hand can still squeeze in. Because I have been running a little longer per row than the original, though, it should be fine and large enough for a cap.

Pictures will come once it's really done. I'm also hoping that washing and blocking it might even out some of the irregularities that occur mainly in the bottom part. Here, too, we will see.

One of the things that I love so much about doing reconstructions is how many of the little details become clear when you are working on it. I have made the first of the holes for the laces to tie the hose closed... and while doing it realised that this thing, which holds the brunt of the force on the whole garment, sits in a very good place.

When you look at the images of the original, there's the waistband that is narrow on the front and wider on the back. The hole is just underneath the band in the front - so logically, it also pierces the band in the back (thus also transferring the force to the band cut on the grain; all other pieces on the upper end are on the bias). In addition, the front slits are neatened and strengthened by using a piece of fabric sewn onto the back. The logical way of doing this (and the typical one) is to place them right side on right side, then run a seam through both pieces close to the edge, then fold the extra bit to the inside and hem down the other edge (folded under) to keep it in place. Because that never gives a neat edge, I've added a line of small stitches fixing the foldline.

This means the hole is pierced through one layer of the waistband, one layer of the strengthening fabric inside (that I've also cut on the grain) and the main fabric of the hose. Three layers of thick, sturdy fabric, two of which are on the grain.

It took a bit of force and some re-opening of the hole while doing the first round of stitches (and I have made nicer holes, too) but it is there, it's open, wide enough to easily take a lace, and I am very, very much looking forward on how it will work once the whole thing is done. 

There's some progress, and you are getting a look inside... the butt part. It currently looks like this: 

Since there's no really clear indication of a felled seam on the codpiece, I've made it as flat as possible. The rest are felled same direction as in the Alpirsbach original.

Fitting is still to be done - and the thing also lacks the feet, which means the legs have a tendency to twist out of alignment. But that will be done next try-on session! 

About everybody who has done reconstruction work on late medieval legwear and used the Alpirsbach pattern as one of the sources has mentioned (if they have written about it, obviously) that the crotch as drawn on the pattern will not work.

I can confirm. It's too pointy, so that you will have the full length for the crotch drawn in on the pattern, but it is not usable in its full length - the little pointy point will be pointless, you could say. So why did I go for the pattern style anyways? Well, because a) I wanted to see how it did not work, and b) I didn't want to make something up before having an idea of what to make up.

I have now changed it to a sort of narrow U-shape for the second leg, and it looks much better. 

I have also mapped all the long and short seam allowances so I can do the felled seam in the right direction. And I have cursed (frequently) my choice of test fabric, which is rather heavy and stiff and needs some wrangling to work with the relatively narrow seam allowances.

One leg is sewn (though not hemmed) all the way down, the other halfway, and the butt seam is in (that's the one being done in the picture). They have a tendency to twist around the wearer's legs, which is a little weird and may be a) normal and totally okay or b) something that will turn out to be not so good, and will need an adapted pattern making process in future iterations. But it might also be one of the reason why these hose were footed: So that the seam stays where it's supposed to stay. 

Now the only step left (apart from the feet, and finishing the long seams) is to figure out the final version of the codpiece, and cut, sew, and install that. It will also be very interesting to see if the thing really stands nicely on its own or whether it needs to be filled with something.

All very interesting : )  

And while I am happily getting ready for the long weekend, here is an image of Barbie doll Ken (with, as they call it, the "broad body type" who is kindly modeling my small model of the Alpirsbach hose: 

It's still lacking the feet and the waistband, but otherwise, well! And you can guess that I was very happy about this happy chance fit!