Hi Kelly,
Ok, I'm convinced the cut-from-yardgoods stockings existed.
Come to think of it, there is a stocking I looked at from around 1880
that fit the category - one of the fancy knit fabrics that probably
could not have been done any other way.
However, I thought you said the cut & sewn were the most common
for mid-19th century. I have not seen that in extant stockings in
museum collections. There are certainly hand-knit stockings, and
those that are knit to shape.
From
The employments of women: a cyclopaedia of woman's work./ By Virginia Penny.
Penny, Virginia, b. 1826.Penny, Virginia, How women can make money.
Boston: Walker, Wise, & Company1863.
Hosiers:
A knitting machine has been invented in Seneca, N. Y., that is said
to knit a perfect stocking in less than five minutes. Aikens's
knitting machines are very popular. We have thought ladies would do
well to try them, and devote themselves to making up hosiery. We'
doubt not but it would pay very well. - The cloth is knit in a
straight piece, and another lady cuts it into shape and sews into
the articles wanted.
Work done by steam power is not so neat; the selvages are not well
made, and the goods must be cut and sewed in seams. Many women are
employed in hosiery manufactures where steam is used.
Is this an advertisement for ladies to buy this machine and use
it at home? It's a bit confusing considering they mention steam
power. Having to cut the yardgoods to shape does not seem like
knitting the perfect stocking.
From:
The new American cyclopaedia: a popular dictionary of general
knowledge. Ed. by George Ripley and Charles A. Dana ...
Ripley, George, ed. Dana, Charles A. ed. (Charles AndersonNew York
[etc]: D. Appleton and company1859-1863.
Stocking:
The shaping of the web to fit the foot is matter of no little
ingenuity. The flat web is either knit in long strips of sufficient
width to make when turned over several stockings which are cut out
from the web.
And this was common? What I've seen in machine-made originals
is cotton stockings getting finer and finer, as the spinning and the
knitting machines become finer. Clocking is done with openwork
stitches, which becomes more and more subtle as the gauge gets finer.
The examples I've seen are knit to shape and seamed up the back,
which I can tell because the seam allowance is very tiny - a stitch
or two wide.
From:
The Hosiery Resource Centre
Full-fashioned stockings are knitted flat, than fashioned, or
shaped, by hand manipulation and hand seamed up the back.
That seems to say the shaping is done after the knitting. The
earlier machines did require hand-manipulation to make the increases
and decreases, but that was on the machine as each row was knit.
These days full-fashioned means the item was shaped as it was knitted
and then assembled. I'm not sure what the meaning was at the time
this was written.
Knitting is back and forth across the fabric (weft knitting) on a
straight-bar machine invented by William Cotton in 1864. The
stocking is started at the top with the welt, an extra-thick section
for gartering. The fabric is shaped by reducing the number of
needles at the ankle, then adding needles at the heel, and again
reducing the number through the foot.
So this one is shaped by the machine, not shaped by cutting.
Seamless stockings are knitted on circular machines, brought out
in the mid-19th century. For many years such stockings were a
straight, knitted tube that did not fit as well as the
full-fashioned, because stitches cannot be added or dropped in
circular knitting by machine. (I've seen reference to these as
"leg-bags", obviously not a compliment in an age which prized a trim
ankle!)
The circular machine was first seen in the 1790s, first used for
hats. The earliest stockings I've seen (extant) are dated 1840.
(I'm not sure when this type was first made, but the machine
capability was there earlier). Anyway, these 1840 stockings are
quite interesting - the foot is seamed with the typical flap heel,
and there is a dart taken in the ankle/lower calf area for shaping.
The other unique thing - the few examples I saw have the design
printed on rather than embroidered or knit in. It's curious that
someone in 1840 would think to do this, but it was not done later.
But these things happen.
Another thing I noticed developing in the 19thC - reinforcement
threads added to the heel. I'm not sure if that is something
reenactors do for the Civil War era.
I agree that modern knit fabric is stretchier than that found in
earlier periods, based on the originals I have been able to examine.
However, with this method I am able to mimic the technique used in
the period with 100% natural materials and end up with a product
that fits and is closer to period stockings than anything currently
being offered by vendors - it works for me
I heard that someone was knitting stockings on some sort of
machine for Civil War reenactment use. But then he stopped for some
reason?
Making them from knit yardgoods is a good way to get something
better, short of handknitting. Since the original question was about
18th century, it may or may not be perfectly authentic - depends on
the decade being reproduced.
-Carol
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