Toe closing and boarding apparatus has boarding apparatus (10) to which hose are fed by a reciprocally-acting transfer mechanism (16) from carriers (12) of a known toe closing machine. The boarding apparatus (10) has at least one pair of heatable boarding forms (14,15) mounted e.g. on a turret to move between hose-receiving and hose- discharging positions (B and A); at the former position there is a wind-on roller (30) and at the latter position a pair of wind-off or discharge rollers (32, 33). The forms (14, 15) at their ends remote from the toe closing machine are interconnected by a hinge (31) having a rotatably-drivable hinge pin (46) for causing the form (15) to swing into a superposed, registered position over the other form immediately prior to discharge of the hose. Boarding of stockings, socks and pantihose garments is possible by means of the boarding apparatus (10).