Updated Viking Apron Dress
Every few years, I try to update my apron dresses to make them more historically accurate. This time I've gone with some relatively simple updates to my grey-black dress, all incorporating the concept of reinforcing edges with cords--a sewing technique found in Danish, Swedish and Norwegian Viking textiles.
I've replaced the most recent card woven wool trim with some whipcording in similar colours. Kvinnodrakten i Birka (especially the illustration on p. 53) describes a bunch of apron dresses with string along the top edge where the brooch loops were attached, and grave 838 in particular had a "braided string." Kaupang Grave B had a wool string made from several individual strings twined together, which to me sounded like whipcording, so in the interest of looking like a Norwegian Viking I've gone with this method. That, and whipcording is fun. :)
As you saw not long ago, I redid the hems in woollen thread I'd spun myself, but now I've stitched some red handspun yarn over the edges and seams with that thread, too. Reinforcing hemmed edges with oversewn string is a technique that was used at Haithabu, Birka, Sandnes, Kaupang--pretty widely over the Viking world--so I figured it was a useful technique to try, especially to use some of the yarn and the sewing thread I made. It also gives this otherwise charcoal-coloured dress another shot of colour and interest. We'll see how well this technique protects against wear (often suggested as the reason for sewing string over the seams) over the next couple of years, as I field test the idea.
I also sewed string over the outer edge of the dart I used. There was a dart on the Haithabu apron dress fragment (darts and tucks were both used in the Haithabu textiles, according to Inga Hagg, and I am of a shape where these are very useful tricks) which had cord sewn over the outside edge, so I've done the same, here.
This is also a useful way for me to create a more historical-looking piecing. Since I'd originally sewn the dress years ago, before I was particularly concerned about historical widths of cloth, I simply wrapped a long piece of summer-weight wool suiting around me, added a couple gores to make walking simpler and did some quick shaping so that it looked less like a sack (and more like the knorr-breasted women described in the sagas ;) ). I didn't want to undo and redo all of the seams (working this much overtime is really cutting into my crafting time) so I sewed some of the yarn up the sides to create the appearance of a seam there without having to take the dress completely apart. I can definitely recommend this as a cheat to make a dress look more period without needing to redo all of your work, as I love the way this looks, now.
Seams oversewn with string--a great way to update your apron dress or smokkr to be more authentic!
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I've replaced the most recent card woven wool trim with some whipcording in similar colours. Kvinnodrakten i Birka (especially the illustration on p. 53) describes a bunch of apron dresses with string along the top edge where the brooch loops were attached, and grave 838 in particular had a "braided string." Kaupang Grave B had a wool string made from several individual strings twined together, which to me sounded like whipcording, so in the interest of looking like a Norwegian Viking I've gone with this method. That, and whipcording is fun. :)
As you saw not long ago, I redid the hems in woollen thread I'd spun myself, but now I've stitched some red handspun yarn over the edges and seams with that thread, too. Reinforcing hemmed edges with oversewn string is a technique that was used at Haithabu, Birka, Sandnes, Kaupang--pretty widely over the Viking world--so I figured it was a useful technique to try, especially to use some of the yarn and the sewing thread I made. It also gives this otherwise charcoal-coloured dress another shot of colour and interest. We'll see how well this technique protects against wear (often suggested as the reason for sewing string over the seams) over the next couple of years, as I field test the idea.
I also sewed string over the outer edge of the dart I used. There was a dart on the Haithabu apron dress fragment (darts and tucks were both used in the Haithabu textiles, according to Inga Hagg, and I am of a shape where these are very useful tricks) which had cord sewn over the outside edge, so I've done the same, here.
This is also a useful way for me to create a more historical-looking piecing. Since I'd originally sewn the dress years ago, before I was particularly concerned about historical widths of cloth, I simply wrapped a long piece of summer-weight wool suiting around me, added a couple gores to make walking simpler and did some quick shaping so that it looked less like a sack (and more like the knorr-breasted women described in the sagas ;) ). I didn't want to undo and redo all of the seams (working this much overtime is really cutting into my crafting time) so I sewed some of the yarn up the sides to create the appearance of a seam there without having to take the dress completely apart. I can definitely recommend this as a cheat to make a dress look more period without needing to redo all of your work, as I love the way this looks, now.
Seams oversewn with string--a great way to update your apron dress or smokkr to be more authentic!
This entry was originally posted on Dreamwidth. Please comment there using OpenID.
comments currently posted.