With the shortening of the overgown in the 15th century, separate hose were now largely out of fashion and replaced by joined hose. Extant pieces are constructed of wool and as with the separate hose, joined hose were cut on the bias for stretch and thus form fit. For modesty, a codpiece was added where the legs joined in the front. (Well, it might have started as modesty, but by the 16th century the codpiece was more of a fashion piece and seemingly a symbol of the wearers virility as they became bigger and even were provocatively jeweled.)

Like separate hose, joined hose were seen both solid colored and particolored. Particolored examples are seen in the Benozzo Gozolli detail Procession of the Magus Balthazar and in the detail from Jean Fouquet's Martyrdom Of St. Apollonia(c. 1452-60). Hose may have had stirrups at the foot, or a full foot (think footie pajamas here) with or without a leather sole attached. There are some good extant examples of the construction of the closed hose foot in Museum of London's Textiles and Clothing: 1150-1450 by Elisabeth Crowfoot, Frances Pritchard, and Kay Staniland.

The hose in the photograph at the top of the page are of flannel weight wool hand sewn with waxed linen thread in a backstitch for added durability. Each leg is constructed of one piece of fabric cut on the bias and joined at the center back of the leg. The seam is splayed and sewn down with silk thread in a running stitch. Because of the slight transparency of the white wool, I sewed a linen lining in the seat/crotch area only. The codpiece is lined in linen and is tacked to the base of the crotch. It is pointed in place on the sides of the codpiece, and is pointed to the doublet along the waist. The eyelets are all handsewn in silk thread.

There is some debate as to whether joined hose had a gusset in the crotch. In examining pictoral evidence, it is unclear. These hose are constructed without a gusset. To date, they've remained structurally sound, and provide a full range of movement without pulling in the crotch. To form the seat, a tab of fabric from the inner leg extends under the crotch to meet the outside back of the fabric over the seat. Pictoral evidence supports multiple seam configurations of the seat.

The seat, as seen in the detail below, fits fairly close to the body. There's a peek at the eyelet detail at the waistline in that picture, as well. The legs, however, could fit a bit closer to the leg. There's a bit of sag overall in the legs that I rarely see in the pictoral evidence.