Cheater stockings for the late period dandy

My poor Husbeast has been wearing an old pair of my leggings, pulled down over his feet,  as stockings for the last 18 months. To be fair I've been scrambling to get (and keep) him in linens, and get him enough suits made that he's not always wearing the same thing. Then there's been household uniform to make and keep up, and new fencing helmet trappings. Never a dull moment in clothing the husbeast. But I actually finished his "leisure" outfit for War of the Roses this year, and wanted him to have something comfortable to wear on his legs that wasn't so obviously out of place as lycra dancers leggings. I did a little research and consulted with the wonderful knitting laurel Angharad, who specializes in stockings. Really he needs good knit stockings of wool or silk (wool for regular wear, silk maybe for his court suit) and fancy garters. The stockings would extend up into the trunkhose and be secured there either possibly by being laced onto the leg bands (by eyelets in some of the trunkhose in patterns of fashion) or I suspect by the older method where they pointed onto the brais, or into the waistband of the trunkhose even (And thence to the doublet). the very short trunkhose would require quite long stockings, and some way of keeping them up. I don't see why the method that worked so admirably for cloth hose wouldn't work here as well.

More research later. For now I just need to cover his nether limbs in a seemly fashion for this season. (I took a class about calculating patterns for knit hose this summer, SUPER EXCITING, and I hope to knit him a proper pair over the winter)

I will note that cloth stockings were worn by the lower to middle classes still at the time when his persona was living by the sword. However I have a couple quibbles about those. the first being I think they would have been on the low class end of how I clothe him. which is good quality clothing with  few flashes of fancy: Things he might have picked up in his travels or as prizes/plunder. The other problem is his legs. When the Husbeast squats, his thigh goes from about 22 inches to about 27..... This has resulted in a lot of drama with the leg bands of his trunkhose, and I have my doubts about the ability of bias cut cloth to keep up with that kind of increase. My final decision was to make sewn stockings from machine knit material as a stopgap. Not, to be sure, accurate, but better by a long shot than what he has now. Especially if accessorized with good garters! I consulted the wonderful Dreamstress for method and pattern, since I remembered her doing it for the historical sew fortnightly. What she was doing was different, but gave me an idea of what the foot pattern should look like at least.  Then I simply cut a long rectangle of knit fabric I had lying about, had the husbeast stand on one end and hold the other, and started pinning. There was a lot of pinning. Then I basted all the pinned bits so he could get it off without stabbing himself, and had him hold the long leftover bit up so I could mark a point at the top that could be pointed onto either brais or the waistband of his trunkhose.  Having made a few pairs of cloth hose came in really handy here, because I had some idea of what the top edges should look like to be comfortable and practical.

I marked all the edges of the basting, took the stitches out, and voila: one 3d leg rendered into 2d. Now I had to make more decisions. I decided to make a scant quarter inch seam allowance, as I would be sewing these with either stepped zigzag, or the serger. I cut around the drawn lines at that distance, then transferred the pattern to paper. At the same time that i did this, I made the heel point symetrical, although I left the foot shaped left/right. I also chose to make the foot portion separate from the leg, rather than leaving a giant dart that would have to be trimmed off. this allows for more creative arrangement of the pattern onto fabric as well.

it's a weird looking pattern. The () is where the foot attaches to the calf. So left to right on the pattern you have: the heel flap, the bottom of the right foot, the top of the right foot, then the leg, with the pointy bit being the  part for pointing into his waistband. 

 With a good pattern in hand, I cut the second hose from  the same scrap knit, and sewed them up. i didn't have light thread in my serger, so I used a stepped zig zag on my standard machine, being careful to not stretch the fabric out as I sewed.   this is one area where I'm a strong proponent of lots of pins. I faced the top edge with knit, interfacing the point with handkerchief linen so it would hold up to pointing. I top stitched the edge with a zig zag, and the point with a straight stitch, and worked eyelets in the point. Voila, a stocking. Repeat and you have a pair!

With this kind of stockings, he needed garters, to keep them from continually sliding down the leg
and exerting a lot of pressure on the attachment point. The garters also keep the stocking sleek over the lower leg, adequately displaying the manly calf of the wearer. Well turned calves were MUCH in style, even to the extent that men sometimes resorted to padding to obtain a more pleasing proportion. Small projects like this are why I keep a silk scrap stash. I decided (somewhat uncharitably probably) that these garters were a gift from me, his beloved, and therefore should be in my colors. (right? Right?) I also HAPPENED to have a scrap of violent green silk lurking around..... Fortuitous really.   I sewed these by machine, then worked over the edges in whip stitch to firm them up a little and give them some grip.                                     

Instead of tassels I made a little yellow silk needle lace edging on these, not a lot, just a row of loops worked out of tight blanket stitch to give the end a little pop. it's not my best work ever, but not terrible for a first attempt. Even though these are silk satin, which would NOT be my first choice (slippery) they stay tied just fine. Of course I'd like to make him several more pairs (maybe one with those fabulous silver tassels??) it's actually a really effective way to work on needle lace, because it's a small enough bit that you don't make yourself crazy with frustration!

Of course I'm getting around to posting this four months later (that being the soonest I got a picture of him wearing them) which means that I can update with how these worked. I haven't gotten to the wool ones yet, but the cotton pair have been really sucessful. He points them to the waistband of his trunkhose, and they look about a thousand times better than the old spandex leggings, and are less hot since they don't come up over the waist. I'm still hoping to knit him  couple "proper" pairs, but for now, these are working out ok. He doesn't even seem to mind the violent green garters! (and yes, better shoes are on the wishlist for him. but getting anything in 14 EEEE is difficult. I think we're going to end up having to go full custom which is $$$$)