It depends on the material they're made of. I have made and worn both knitted and fabric stocks. The knitted ones have much more stretch, so can be tight about the ankle. The fabric ones can't be really tight around the ankle, even when cut on the bias, otherwise you just can't get your foot through them to put them on! I recall seeing drawing with ties on the ankle of the fabric stocks to pull them in after they're on, but don't remember where off the top of my head.
Glenda. -----Original Message----- From: h-costume-boun...@indra.com [mailto:h-costume-boun...@indra.com] On Behalf Of Chris Laning Sent: Sunday, 5 April 2009 7:05 AM To: Historical Costume Subject: [h-cost] The fit of 17th century stockings? I'm working on a project that involves constructing some mid-17th- century stockings, and my own expertise (such as it is) is really only with earlier centuries. So far, the results I seem to be getting suggest that either (1) these stockings are *supposed* to be loose around the ankle and instep rather than closely fitted, or (2) the instructions were written by someone who really didn't know what he was doing! Both are possible, of course, but since I haven't studied 17th century fashions at all, I don't have information that would enable me to tell. Insights from people more familiar with this era would be very helpful -- backup evidence even more so ;) ____________________________________________________________ O Chris Laning <clan...@igc.org> - Davis, California + http://paternoster-row.org - http://paternosters.blogspot.com ____________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
