Socks part 2 - making a pattern

Please, do read all the way through befor you begin - if there is a point where my description doesn't make sense to you you will not be as frustrated and have time to ask me or someone knowledgable in hose or sock making! What will you need:

paper (newspaper will work) and pen

Wool suitable for socks

Tailors chalk

ruler

pins

scissors

and preferably a second set of eyes and hands since it is harder to get a good fit on your own.


Start out on paper by making a sole - draw around your foot while standing:

 

Measure across your fot at the highest point and note the number somewhere. Mark that corresponding line out as well on the paper. Measure around the back of the sole - the measuremant from those points - you can just make out that notation on my pattern. I also took the measurement from the toe to the point where the flap will bend - app. where foot becomes leg I guess.
 You now have your sole pattern:

making the top:

Draw out the flap: Mine is almost square: 9 cm at the top and 8 cm at the bottom, which gives the pattern a slight angle but in reality the flap will end up square when hemmed.

Use the measurement from the planned position of where the flap will end up on your leg to the top of your toes - mark that point on the paper.

Use the second measurement from your highest point all around the heel and divide in half - add those as the "back flaps". I drew at right angles a 10 cm line on each side. That will probably work well for all adult feet.

Then raw a rough likeness of the pattern I have adjusted to your measurements - add a hefty seam allowance to make you able to adjust the fit as needed.
You now should have something looking like this:

 

This is how my new paper templates compares to my original pattern:

Now it is time to do it in wool fabric!
cut out and add remember to have seam allowance in the wool fabric. - you really will need have something to grab hold of when pinning.

Now the fun starts:

Pin the back seam so you can comfortably get in and out of your sock but still have it looking like you can have a reasonable fit:

Sew that seam - I did this when I made the first pattern with looong stitches on the machine - but only because it was loaded and ready - otherwise it is as quick to do a simple seam by hand. Reason for basting is that pins hurt...and you will have enough pins to worry about anyway!

Put on the top pattern, place the sole piece on the floor, then place your foot on top of it and and start pinning them together! (this is where you either are an octopus or have an assistant)
Make sure that you pin close to the floor or you will end up with a seam higher up wich usually is not comfy at all! You also may have to adjust your back seam at this point. Just make sure you can remove the sock!

 

When you think you have a good fit; carefully remove the sock.

You most likely will have quite a lot of excess fabric:


Trim the edges down to more sensible sewing allowances:

 

upside down

Sew along the sole. Double check that you have a good fit. You can now trim the sewing allowances down to be ready for felling. I make the sewing allowance of the sole be a few mm longer so they will cover the tops when felled.

Now - sorry, but there is no other way - take the sock apart. Either keep this as your pattern - or make a paper one by drawing out a copy of your sock.

Make your socks! And remember if you make adjustments later - do that to your patterns as well!

As for my newly made pattern - which I kind of had to make since I realised that there was no way I could explain how to do this only in words - compare the new in purple to the old one in red:

Close enough I'd say!

Hose and socks part 1

 

I came home from Double Wars realising I only had one good pair of hose. Time to do something about that and I brought out my trusted hose pattern and in short order I finished two pairs, one of which can be seen here:

 

Summer was not so far away (this was in mid-May) and I thought about summer wear. I remembered Whiljas trossfrau socks and decided to make my own. (Whiljas corner - the trossfrau sock)

I had also seen my friend Petronilla of London's photos of a linen sock from Regensburg. In appearance it reminded me a lot of the 16th c shoes Erik had made for me. I used that pattern for a toile and fitted the first attempt:

 

I then used the fabric I planned to make socks of, a melton from Medeltidsmode. I made a sock, fitted and ready for felling with all the hems trimmed - and then I took it apart; this is now my pattern. I can now just cut and sew!

I then went for linen socks. It quickly became obvious that linen behaves differently than the wool did so I made a new "trial" sock and now have two slightly different patterns.

I have since then made a pair of yellow, black and purple wool socks, and a pair of white linen ones. Addictive "sockers"!

 

Now a lot of people have told me they want socks so I guess my next post will be some kind of instruction on how to make a pattern :)

Forgot your hat? Make a new one!

a.k.a "The pillow case hat" - and this too is up on my old blog:

This is the most basic of all the hats. Pattern's dead easy, just one big square, the only finicky stage is when you fit it around your head but otherwise i'ts just straight lines and not that many of them to make this type of hat:

   

Instructions:

• Cut two pieces 35cm X 70cm. Put the right sides towards each other.
• Sew along the edge with your usual seam allowance. Leave an opening so you can turn it inside out. Trim the corners and turn. You may want to iron it flat depending on the fabric. Fold it in half.
• Here comes the trickiest part of the construction, and the hardest to describe in writing: You are now going to prepare the hat for the side seams. What you need to figure out is how high your brim is going to be. I folded mine so it’s 14cm high. Put a pin as a marker on all side edges. That will mark the bottom edge (the fold) of the hat. If you’d sew it together along the sides it’d be way to large and if you look closely at the pictures the brim looks likes it overlaps. So adjust the size of the hat by overlapping on both sides. I chose to let the front piece overlap on both sides. Pin it along the edge both on the inside and outside. Sew it together both on the inside and the outside with as invisible stitches as you can manage. Fold the brim into position and continue to stitch the brims together about 4-5 cm. This will help the brim to stay up and not flop down even without some nice pin to adorn the hat.
• The hat is ready to add the bling! 

 

 

 

 

I think it looks a lot like this one too:

 

The Black Hat with Split Brim and Bows

Another hat description moved from my old blog:

 

To make the brim for this hat: Cut four pieces ca 18cm x 18cm  Then use pattern piece A:

Instructions:

• Cut 4 pieces of A, remember to add seam allowance! Take your 4 brim pieces.
• Sew the four A pieces together along the sides. Fell the seams. Fold the hem and sew it down. You may want to shorten the bottm sides. To get the brim to look good I only had about 1 cm before the bulge started (after hemming).
• Fold one of the brim pieces, a bit uneven, on one side of the fold you should have about 2c more fabric. This to make it easier to attach to the hat part.  Sew along the sides. Trim and turn inside out. Repeat with the other 3. Pin the pieces to the bottom edge of the hat. Fold in the bottom edge and sew it to the inside.
• If you do nothing more this is what it looks like: 

 

To make the brim stay up. Make 4 ties. I finger looped mine, but you can make them any way you want. Make little bows and sew them to the brim. Mine are attached about halfway up the “split” and have aiglets at the ends.Now it should look something like this:

 

There are images where the brim has even more splits, so you kan adapt this to your liking. And for the ties you can use plain string without aiglets or to be even more extravagant make them out of a wider silk ribbon!

 

The “Schlappe”

Another move from my old blog. I'm not entirely happy with this one and have some ideas on how to inmprove the look and construction to more closely resemble the images, but here is the first version of the Schlappe:

 

 

This is a type of headwear I've so far only seen worn by men, if anyone out there has proof for this beeing worn by women in period please share!


To make a pattern was a bit more tricky: this is what I came up with:

 

and of course, some other little bits that are square.

I had a pattern for a scullcap made from 6 pieces. I wanted 4 so I quickly made a mockup from the old pattern and cut it into 4 pieces. Traced one and made another mockup. It fit just right so then I added the strips at the bottom edge. Mine are 7.5 cm long. The Earflaps I also experemented a bit. It's great to have those boxes of toile fabrics (old sheets and bedspreads and leftovers that really cant be used for anything else). Trial and error is so much easier on the mind if the fabric's inexpensive. My earflaps just barely meet underneath the chin when tied together. My earflap turned out to be 17 cm long. The square pieces were just trial and error as I went a long.

So this is how I made it:

• Cut two of B1-B2 pattern piece. Flip pattern piece B2 over for the second piece which will create a left side and a right side. Cut out the linings for the earflaps (B3) in a nice contrasting colour. Cut a strip of fabric 38 cm long and 8 cm wide and another 20 cm long and 12 cm wide. (B4 and B5)

• Pin and sew the four pieces together. Alternating the pieces B1 and B2. Make sure that the Earflaps end up where you want them!

• The earflaps: Pin the lining right sides facing each other. Sew as close to the edge as you can. Trim the edges and turn. Press the flaps flat. You now have something looking like this:

 

• Take the longer of the two strips (B4) Start pinning the slashed edges to the strip. Make sure they are pinned as close together as you can without letting them overlap. Stitch them all together and back to the ironing board! Press and fold the strip so it looks like a brim. Sew the edges together on the wrong side ( the side that goes on the inside of the cap). Pin the ends into each earflap. Do the same with the neckslashes. As you’ll notice I’ve made the back strip wider. This is to make it fit better. When both front and back are pinned to the earflaps:
• Put a stitch in along the inner edge at each slit. This makes the strips/slashes bulge nicely on the outside and the brim to stay put.
• Try it on and adjust the fit by angling the back strip, depending on the shape of your head you may want to adjust the front strip as well. I had a steeper angle on the back and none on the front one. Use chalk to mark the edge. Cut away the excess fabric and fold in the seam allowance and sew it shut.
• Put ties at the end of each earflap.
• Done!

 

This is my first "Schlappe"

In trying it out I thought I needed to move the earflaps forwards wich I've since adjusted accordingly so the pattern you've got above is the new and improved one! (and one I will probably adjust further still as stated above)

  

 

How I made my stockings or Stocking-making for beginners - Part Three

Sewing the stocking together!

Unless your fabric has a distinct right and wrong side, be sure to mark your pieces so you know wich belong to the left and right stocking. I'm writing from experience here...

I start out with the back seam of the leg:
As I've sewn the long seam I try it on to make sure the narrowest part at the ankle is as tight as it can be, but still allows my foot to go through. When the leg seam passes this test, I fell the seam.

Next I add the side gores. When both are sewn in, I again check the fit. Basically I just put it on man make sure that I have enough seam allowance around the foot, and that the gores aren't to large. I then fell those seams.

Now comes the iffy bit, I do like my stockings to fit snugly and I do not trust my skill in cutting the perfect seam allowance. Thus I put the leg part of the stocking on and stand on the sole piece and pin them together. Here you have to be careful, as you want your seam to follow close to the floor. If you have an able assistant available I suggest using that person to help you with the pinning!

I sew the sole and leg together, check the fit and then I fell the seams.

Hem the top of the stocking.

Done!

(Pictures will be added when I make my next pair!)

How I made my stockings or Stocking-making for beginners - Part Two

Put the sole back underneath your foot and pin it to the leg fabric. This is where my pattern got baptized in blood. When you’re trying to pin this close to a living, breathing thing there might be a few accidents…
When the sole is pinned all the way around you should be left with two triangular holes, one on each side. What I did was to approximate the size and shape of the hole and cut out a slightly larger piece that I stuffed in the hole and then I traced the edges. I ended up with two pieces like these. Remember to mark which piece goes on the inside of the foot and which on the outside. I also drew arrows showing me which was down and which end points towards the toes.



Now comes another interesting step – getting the stocking off. If the stocking is nice and tight around the ankle your foot won’t get through, but you want it to be as tight as possible, since the stocking will be less wrinkled in that area. Carefully try to take the stocking off the leg and move the pins in the ankle area (marked with red dots on the image)





 

We then started on the leg pattern. Take the fabric and put it on the bias around the leg. Ordinary fabric (non-knit) is stretchier on the bias and it helps with the fit if the fabric does have some give to it.

Adding image that explains the difference of bias and straight.

I was wearing Capri leggings so we pinned it at the top just below the knee cap. This is not necessary but was helpful for my friend who’d never done anything like this since the fabric didn’t “escape” before she put in those first pins. When you star putting in the pins make sure you do it as tight as snug as possible, the tighter the better. You start pinning the fabric in the middle of the back of the leg, just like those vintage stockings has a seam in the back. Start at the top and work your way downwards. As yo get to the ankle the fabric gets more and more wrinkled andyou will have to do the side splits. Those should be made on both sides of the foot approximately where the anklebone protrudes: I’ve marked the proper spot on the image.

Continue pinning all the way down to the floor and cut the slits as long as needed to let the fabric become as smooth as possible. You will have some wrinkles – accept that cloth isn’t as stretchy as modern knits! Cut away most of the excess fabric. You should end up with something similar to this

Put the sole back underneath your foot and pin it to the leg fabric. This is where my pattern got baptized in blood. When you’re trying to pin this close to a living, breathing thing there might be a few accidents…
When the sole is pinned all the way around you should be left with two triangular holes, one on each side. What I did was to approximate the size and shape of the hole and cut out a slightly larger piece that I stuffed in the hole and then I traced the edges. I ended up with two pieces like these. Remember to mark which piece goes on the inside of the foot and which on the outside. I also drew arrows showing me which was down and which end points towards the toes.

 

 

Now comes another interesting step – getting the stocking off. If the stocking is nice and tight around the ankle your foot won’t get through, but you want it to be as tight as possible, since the stocking will be less wrinkled in that area. Carefully try to take the stocking off the leg and move the pins in the ankle area (marked with red dots on the image)

Move the pins very little every time ‘til you can wiggle and carefully pull the sock off. When the sock is off take the pen and trace where the pins are. Remember to do both sides before you remove the pins!
I prefer my patterns not to include seam allowance since I never remember how much I added. I therefore cut away all excess fabric and ended up with this:

 

 If your feet are similar in shape you can use the same pattern for both, just flip it over. I chanced it and it worked fine for me.

Now you have a pattern - next post will be about how I sew it together!