Viking Ensemble
In keeping with the theme of the event and adding to my list of A&S 50s challenge of new items, I created a Viking Ensemble.
Now, going from late period documentable sources to early period viking was a challenge. I had to rely on REALLY secondary and third sources from people I respected in the area of interest instead of primary and documentable secondary sources. The images found in books was hard for me to decipher, so I combined the knowledge from the few books I could find with enough detail to give me aspects of clothing such as fabrics and colors used with secondary sources to come up with my own interpretation.
I relied on information from many museums such as Fotevikens Museum (www.foteviken.se/engelsk/indexe.htm) and the multitude of information on resources from Birka.
In addition, Several different Non SCA viking reenactment societies such as Hurstwic www.valhs.org/index.html , Byfrost www.byfrost.nl/index.php , and The Vikings www.vikingsonline.org.uk/index.htm . However, since my first language (and really only language), is English and many of the websites were in Swedish, German...etc.......this presented quite a challenge as well - who would have known that "Fotoalbum" had pictures.....
However the most intelligible and readily available information I was able to gather came from members of the SCA that specialize in this time period such as Mistress Pora Sharptooth as well as The Viking Answer Lady website www.vikinganswerlady.com/index.shtml. Many thanks also to lots of input from Lady Thyre of Andovere and Mistress Genevieve d'Aquitaine.
For the purposes of this post I will show what I have done with the garment, but will provide the documentation with all my official references.
For this ensemble, I decided on a simple underdress made of 6 oz weight blue linen, with a red 5.3 oz weight linen apron dress style based on the 4 paneled design fitted slightly in the torso. The Over coat, or Birka coat (or Viking Kaftan) was made of a lighter weight olive green wool.
Because this was my first viking ensemble, and card weaving, which was a staple for trim designs, was not readily available and was a bit out of my price range, I opted to finger loop braid and sew together different colors of linen thread as trim. There is no visible machine stitching and the apron dress is top stitched with contrasting color.
The beads were given to me by a friend who had an abundance of viking beads, but the design and placement of the beads was my own creation. The brooches and closures for the coat were purchased by Raymonds Quiet Press. The belt is not period for the ensemble, but it is my Apprentice belt and goes with everything in my mind.....:-)
This was not my original blue underdress. It was borrowed.
This is the ensemble with the underdress I created.
The fingerloop braided trim (photo compliments of Mistress Genveive
Now, going from late period documentable sources to early period viking was a challenge. I had to rely on REALLY secondary and third sources from people I respected in the area of interest instead of primary and documentable secondary sources. The images found in books was hard for me to decipher, so I combined the knowledge from the few books I could find with enough detail to give me aspects of clothing such as fabrics and colors used with secondary sources to come up with my own interpretation.
I relied on information from many museums such as Fotevikens Museum (www.foteviken.se/engelsk/indexe.htm) and the multitude of information on resources from Birka.
In addition, Several different Non SCA viking reenactment societies such as Hurstwic www.valhs.org/index.html , Byfrost www.byfrost.nl/index.php , and The Vikings www.vikingsonline.org.uk/index.htm . However, since my first language (and really only language), is English and many of the websites were in Swedish, German...etc.......this presented quite a challenge as well - who would have known that "Fotoalbum" had pictures.....
However the most intelligible and readily available information I was able to gather came from members of the SCA that specialize in this time period such as Mistress Pora Sharptooth as well as The Viking Answer Lady website www.vikinganswerlady.com/index.shtml. Many thanks also to lots of input from Lady Thyre of Andovere and Mistress Genevieve d'Aquitaine.
For the purposes of this post I will show what I have done with the garment, but will provide the documentation with all my official references.
For this ensemble, I decided on a simple underdress made of 6 oz weight blue linen, with a red 5.3 oz weight linen apron dress style based on the 4 paneled design fitted slightly in the torso. The Over coat, or Birka coat (or Viking Kaftan) was made of a lighter weight olive green wool.
Because this was my first viking ensemble, and card weaving, which was a staple for trim designs, was not readily available and was a bit out of my price range, I opted to finger loop braid and sew together different colors of linen thread as trim. There is no visible machine stitching and the apron dress is top stitched with contrasting color.
The beads were given to me by a friend who had an abundance of viking beads, but the design and placement of the beads was my own creation. The brooches and closures for the coat were purchased by Raymonds Quiet Press. The belt is not period for the ensemble, but it is my Apprentice belt and goes with everything in my mind.....:-)
This was not my original blue underdress. It was borrowed.
This is the ensemble with the underdress I created.
The fingerloop braided trim (photo compliments of Mistress Genveive