Dress Diary - Hedeby Trousers, and How to Add a Fly to Viking Poofy Pants
In Textilfunde aus dem Hafen von Haithabu, Hägg describes several trouser fragments: fragments 22A-C and 39A-B representing a fitted style similar to the Thorsbjerg find, and fragments 72A-B and 91A from another much looser pair of trousers also seeming to follow the basic piecing concepts as those found in the Thorsbjerg trousers. (Hilde Thunem provides a great summary with illustrations.) Since
smarriveurr prefers looser trouser styles the latter seemed like a good option.
I started from the instructions provided by Shelagh Lewins, based on Freyja Eriksdottir's method, since they seem to make a good amount of sense when compared to Hald's Ancient Danish Textiles. I made 2 toiles--a "thin" rough draft following Lewins' instructions closely to get a sense of how the crotch and inside leg curves should be shaped, and a second "poofy" draft to add the necessary width for pleating. In the second, I added ankle cuff pieces into which to pleat the legs, and changed the width of the leg pieces, but all other pieces (seat panel, front panel, waistband) stayed the same.
To change the width dimension of the leg piece between the first toile to the second, I separated conceptually the "left" (the curve dgbc) and "right" halves of the leg (line ac), essentially disregarding the da and cc dimensions. The left half of Toile 1 (curve dgbc) I transferred relative to one selvedge of my fabric, and the right half (line ac) relative to the other selvedge, treating the top cut edge of my fabric as a constant line da, and making sure that my line cc was parallel. In other words, I lined up the da of Toile 1 along the top cut edge of my fabric so that point b met the left selvedge, then traced curve dgbc with dressmaker's chalk. I then moved Toile 1 to the right along the top cut edge of my fabric so that point a met the right selvedge, and drew line ac. In the four times I've used this method, with both 45" and 60" wide fabric, I have not tried ignoring the inward slope of line ac, so I can't say for certain what result that might create.
Making an ankle cuff is easy. Measure around the heel and arch (circumference D here) for your width, add seam allowance to width, and make it long enough to fold in four (I usually go about 10 cm).
You'll need to add pleats to each ankle (line cc) and along the top of each leg (line da) so that the ankle dimension on the leg matches your ankle cuff width without the seam allowance, and so that the total waistband of trouser legs plus front and seat panels matches that of the waistband. Each ankle I pleated the whole way around, but only pleated part of each leg, in order to get these dimensions to match. To get the look I've created here for the legs, I measured out a hand's breadth from each front panel, then began pleating until I was nearly to the seat panel. I can't necessarily say what method or pleat depth will be easiest for you, but I use my first two fingers as pleat depth pretty consistently for all pleats. YMMV depending upon your client's measurements.
Other client spec included a waistband that didn't fold over like the Thorsbjerg find (he finds that annoying) and the addition of a fly (I have yet to find an extant historical example of this, but he wanted it). The only instructions I was able to find on the addition of a fly were extremely rudimentary ("add 1 more piece of fabric"--no description as to shape or dimensions), so this is how I managed it.
This is a view of the trousers turned inside-out, so you can see the shape of the single piece I added. I shaped it to reflect a modern fly, having cut it from the scrap fabric left over from cutting curve gd. For dimensions, I grabbed a pair of his jeans and made it as long as the fly on the jeans, then at least a hand's breadth broad. I simply hemmed it on 3 sides, and sewed it descending from point d to curve gd on the right leg rather than sewing all of curve gd to gd of the front panel on that side. Here's a view from the outside, to give you a better sense of where I did what:
smarriveurr preferred not to have to take off his belt to use the fly, so leaving the front opening the whole way or adding a button or hook was really not necessary, since the width of the fly means gapping isn't really an issue. I simply overlapped the front panel and the fly so that the front lay well and then sewed along the top of the waistband to close it.
This entry was originally posted on Dreamwidth. Please comment there using OpenID.
comments currently posted.