Dress Diary: Køstrup Apron Dress - Fabric Weaves in the Viking Age
Even though the original Køstrup apron dress was done in a blue evenweave wool, I've chosen a red wool 2/1 twill, which is still a plausibly Viking fabric, even if I can't yet prove it was used to make an apron dress in Denmark.
Rimstad, in Fig. 9 of her thesis, provides a useful breakdown of the frequency of particular weaves of surviving Viking Age textiles, some of which I've provided here:
Evenweave 71%
2/2 twill 12%
2/1 twill 4%
Twill* 3%
Herringbone/broken diamond twill 2%
Diamond twill 1%
Basketweave 1%
* I'm not sure why "twill" is separate from other identified twill types--I'm just giving you her stats, translated into English as best I understand the weaves.
2/1 twill doesn't seem to be the most common Viking fabric. If you just look at 10th century samples, it makes up only 5% of the surviving identifiable fabrics. If you look at just the Haithabu material mentioned in Hägg's Textilfunde... volumes, it makes up 8% of the settlement finds and 10% at the harbour. From the stats I've been able to look up, 2/2 twill was always more common.
Rimstad also provides statistics on where the fabric was found in relation to the brooches, and these seem to indicate that 2/1 twill was a fabric that only appeared over metal brooches, rather than under. I can back that up with the Haithabu graves where microstratigraphy was mentioned. Closest I can get is the Mammen shirt--he was wearing a red 2/1 twill.
But this was in my stash from Ruslan's riding coat project, and I love it. Maybe there's something in the Birka material; I don't usually have info of that detail handy.
As for the white thread, you've seen me use contrasting thread in other projects. My usual justification for using contrasting thread stems from multiple woollen garments having no surviving seams, making them likely of linen, which survives in different conditions to wool and being harder to dye in vivid colours. But I've gotten a lead that there was a textile from 6-8 Pavement in York with contrasting-colour thread, published in the YAT volume, which I'll need to ILL or borrow from someone (or buy) in order to find the page number.
My red thread is a much duller madder burgundy than the vivid scarlet of this fabric, and it just doesn't coordinate well. This white from my spinning basket looks much nicer, though I could also probably have gone with the black I just used to sew a tunic (though that still would have contrasted).
Anyway, sewing proceeds.
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Rimstad, in Fig. 9 of her thesis, provides a useful breakdown of the frequency of particular weaves of surviving Viking Age textiles, some of which I've provided here:
Evenweave 71%
2/2 twill 12%
2/1 twill 4%
Twill* 3%
Herringbone/broken diamond twill 2%
Diamond twill 1%
Basketweave 1%
* I'm not sure why "twill" is separate from other identified twill types--I'm just giving you her stats, translated into English as best I understand the weaves.
2/1 twill doesn't seem to be the most common Viking fabric. If you just look at 10th century samples, it makes up only 5% of the surviving identifiable fabrics. If you look at just the Haithabu material mentioned in Hägg's Textilfunde... volumes, it makes up 8% of the settlement finds and 10% at the harbour. From the stats I've been able to look up, 2/2 twill was always more common.
Rimstad also provides statistics on where the fabric was found in relation to the brooches, and these seem to indicate that 2/1 twill was a fabric that only appeared over metal brooches, rather than under. I can back that up with the Haithabu graves where microstratigraphy was mentioned. Closest I can get is the Mammen shirt--he was wearing a red 2/1 twill.
But this was in my stash from Ruslan's riding coat project, and I love it. Maybe there's something in the Birka material; I don't usually have info of that detail handy.
As for the white thread, you've seen me use contrasting thread in other projects. My usual justification for using contrasting thread stems from multiple woollen garments having no surviving seams, making them likely of linen, which survives in different conditions to wool and being harder to dye in vivid colours. But I've gotten a lead that there was a textile from 6-8 Pavement in York with contrasting-colour thread, published in the YAT volume, which I'll need to ILL or borrow from someone (or buy) in order to find the page number.
My red thread is a much duller madder burgundy than the vivid scarlet of this fabric, and it just doesn't coordinate well. This white from my spinning basket looks much nicer, though I could also probably have gone with the black I just used to sew a tunic (though that still would have contrasted).
Anyway, sewing proceeds.
This entry was originally posted on Dreamwidth. Please comment there using OpenID.
comments currently posted.