This post is in reaction to a blog post a friend made about a very bad experience she had at the Pennsic A&S Display a few years ago.  You can read that post here:  https://annasrome.com/2018/07/05/remember-the-human-dont-be-that-guy-at-as-classes-and-displays/

She made great points about the people displaying, but I want to add onto that.  When you attend an artisans display at Pennsic (or anywhere else) you should keep in mind that those presenting are likely to be a variety of levels in terms of skill.  Some might be new to the SCA and are jumping into the deep end and displaying during their very first year.  Some might be veterans who are exploring a new art.  And, most importantly, some might actually be displaying something entirely other than what you think you see.

Usually the first two categories will become apparent once you engage with the artisan and you can handle advice accordingly.  That last category though, can be tricky, but you should always ask yourself - and the artisan, if necessary - what it is they are showing.  I can use myself as an example, I study Viking Age Norse textiles.  I have a nice display of wool, textile tools, a small scale loom and books that house my research.  What I was NOT actually displaying was my woodworking skills on the loom that I made for the display.  What I was NOT displaying was woodwork or pottery for my spindles (which I did not make at all).  I was also not displaying weaving or spinning (though I had woven samples and spun wool there as well).  What I was sharing was my knowledge of Norse textiles, how they were made, and also the context in which they existed in period.  I know that people do not take time to read piles of papers at events, so I illustrated every item with something tangible on the table.  (Realistically, you could say Research, and Illustrated Research, as well as Experimental Archaeology, are my actual A&S "things" in the SCA, not weaving or costuming or any of the other things I do.  My geek is in the research and experimenting with what I learn.)

I also have a couple of friends who make and display textiles tools.  These people are, in fact, geeked up over making period tools, though they may or may not actually be interested in spinning and weaving full lengths of cloth for garments.  This is actually a very period practice (especially as you get into later history where there was a greater division of labor and people were more apt to specialize, meaning that a Renaissance era woman would labor to spin fibre, but would be procuring her spinning wheel from an adept craftsman who specialized in that trade).  If someone builds a loom and displays it, it is fine to ask if they have woven the cloth for a garment on it, but it is also fine if they say they tested it to see if it works, but they have little interest in weaving 5 yards of cloth.

If you are attending a display, please keep in mind that what you see in front of you might not be what it seems on the surface.  Remember that just because you prefer to do things from sheep-to-shawl (including making all of your own tools), please remember that not everyone has an interest in doing every tangental aspect of their craft themselves (and it might not be period for them to do so).  This is NOT a competition where you get more points for each item one fashions by hand.  You will learn more about someone and their art if you are willing to walk away from assumptions that you might initially make when you learn that those assumptions were off base.

And please, please, remember that many people love the research aspect more than any other and their displayed craft might just be to test theories, it might just be to help illustrate the folder of papers sitting in front of them.  If you are interested enough in their work to stop and talk to them, you should be interested enough to accept that they might be more interested in sharing their research with you rather than the fine details of a machine sewn costume that is only there to help people visualize a paper they composed.

And for the artisans, I recommend that if you make modern substitutions (let us say buttons for your costume), but you have no interest in metal casting to make your own, that you still learn (and include in your documentation if it is a competition) the historic source of the buttons.  Would they have been locally crafted or imported?  Was there a guild for this?  Were they expensive?  (This type of knowledge can also help you better place your garment into historic context.)  

I look forward to seeing this year's display.  It is an amazing day of geeking out with others and learning from them!

If you are a Viking in the SCA or a member of the international Viking community, you might be familiar with Scot and Maggie King of Feed the Ravens/VikingULike.  They are both wonderful artisans, exceptionally open with their vast store of knowledge, and a positive influence on the reennacting community as a whole.  Last night Scot was bitten twice by copperhead snakes and while he is now doing ok, and working on recovery, the excessive cost of the anti-venom is NOT being covered by their insurance.  A GoFundMe has been set up to help defray these costs.

Please consider making a donation and/or buying some of the amazing wares in their shop to help our own in this time of need.​  https://www.gofundme.com/help-scot-and-maggie

And you can find their shop here:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/feedtheravens

This is absolutely one of my favorite parts of Pennsic.  This event is a fantastic chance to take a step into the past and explore various arts as they were done then.  Some of my favorites from past years were lampworking beads over coals, early period embroidery, spinning, bronze casting and, my favorite, was last year where I got to make a coin!   Some classes will be organized with specific times, but even if you miss that thing you really wanted to take, here tends to be artisans down there all day doing demos.  

This is absolutely worth putting at the top of your Pennsic To-Do List!
Preachain's 26th Annual Early Period Arts and Sciences Day

• Wednesday, August 8 at 1 PM - 4 PM
• Clanne Preachain's camp, E-23, across from the Raven's Spittle in the Bog

This post is for those in the SCA who brave the hot humid events, and who desire something a bit "less" to wear that still falls in with a quasi-historical look.

Five years ago, I wrote an article for this blog called "Dressing for the Weather".  In that piece, I covered use of linen, types of garb and some other tips based on my own experiences over the years.  Ability to cope with the weather, is, of course, a very personal issue and while some can parade around in full Elizabethan at Pennsic, others would find their comfort too compromised were they to dress in that manner.  Because this is the SCA, we allow for a range of options, and strict period attire is not required.  There are still plenty of ways to try to fend off that humidity, with a passible historic guise.

One way to do this is simple single layer garb.  Many people opt for Roman or Green in the summer months for this very reason.  A chiton or peplos can be a brilliant way of combatting the elements.

Other options include Bog-dresses (which is also a peplos).  This garment can be voluminous for a very historic look (and in linen, with no belt, that can be exceedingly comfortable in the muggy Pennsic afternoons).  Finds from Huldremose, Zweeloo and Hammerum all give us peplos garments that are a tube of cloth that is pinned at the shoulders.  Huldremose has a fold at the top that creates a flap while the other two have the pins at the edge.  The Hammerum dress is also short, which actually allows you to make this garment with less fabric (and less bunching under the arms and at the waist) than the Huldremose version.

For something still passible, but that uses minimal cloth and reduces bunching, I have a document on creating a "less fabric" version of a bog dress, that uses pleats at the top for a better drape. Without the pleats it is actually pretty comparable to a "Germanic Barbarian Dress" from the Hungarian Museum.  You can find that item here:  ​http://awanderingelf.weebly.com/blog-my-journey/sca-standards-the-bog-dress

Finally, we have the Theoretical Wrap Dress that I tested out last year.  This garment only requires a single hemmed piece of cloth and drapes easily and that keeps you fully covered while working.  You can find instructions (as well as my tips) for this item in my post from last year:

http://awanderingelf.weebly.com/blog-my-journey/new-projects-right-before-war

I find myself answering questions about tents frequently in forums on Facebook.  I take the time to do this because I have had (or stayed in) most of the available period styles at some point or another and have input about what things I would do (or NEVER do) again, what I would change, and what has worked for me the longest.

I want to state upfront that I am a die-hard fan of Panther Primitives Tents.  They are not the only tent maker out there these days, and while I have heard mostly good things about companies like Midwest tents, I have also seen some other pavilions from other companies that made me cringe (seriously, nothing should be STAPLED together on a tent).  So yes, I am definitely a fan of Panther, and should I ever buy another tent, it is guaranteed to come from there.  Even if you are buying a tent elsewhere, some of my comments about tent styles might still be of benefit to you.  ( http://www.pantherprimitives.com/ )

My first tent, which I do not have a picture of at the moment, was actually a Wall Tent.  This was left over from my days as a Civil War reenactor and my then-husband portrayed an officer, we had a wall tent rather than a wedge.  I actually have no faults with this tent or this style.  If you use the style that has only a ridge and end poles, the length of ropes you need to stretch out the walls can take up excessive space in camp, so that is something one needs to consider.  These do, however, tend to have a good deal of usable space inside, and front and back doors make for good air circulation.

The second tent I used was one I borrowed, and that was 16X16 Regent.  We actually used to have quire a few of these in our camp (both the 16X16 and the 12X12) size.  I like these for their portability as they have very few poles involved.  You lose floor space due to slanted walls and the clipped corners, but the 12X12 is particularly awesome for single people who might not need to put a large bed inside.  They go up pretty easy, but I prefer setting one up when there are at least 4 people to help manage it.  The walls are attached which means that the person holding poles inside might bake a bit while everything is set up.  But as a hole, I find them to be attractive and functional.  They are also nice in that you can get a fly on the front as well to help with sun.  

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The next tent we had was an 18" Round Carousel Style Pavilion.  This is the one type of tent I would never, ever buy again.  Rather, I would never have one in this size, combined with the style.  They look beautiful and the carousel top means that you only have a single vertical pole to deal with.  The problem is that 7ft walls on the larger sizes means that you have to have someone tall to add the spokes as you set up.  We also had attached walls on ours, which made it very difficult to get up to begin with.  I think they might only sell them with detachable walls now, which is a good thing.

One of the benefits is that you can actually use the spoke system to hang light weight items like a few garments or your lanterns.  The only other benefit is that they look good.  They look really good.  This is what my brain imagines all medieval tents looked like.  The major drawback though, is that the large sized ones always seem to have the top blow out after about 5 years, even with careful maintenance.  There is a great deal of weight on the top of that pole.  In a single year at Pennsic, I knew of 4 or these that ripped through.  One happened when folks in my camp were there to see it go.  They heard the pop and then the entire tent slowly deflated and shuddered to the ground.

Next came the grandest tent of all, the 18X30 Oval Marquee.  This thing was glorious.  We also had it decorated rather amazingly, with a variety of goods imported from Morocco and India.  There was enough space that we had a foyer, a king air bed, a queen air bend and a huge "closet" wing.  This type of tent, as well as other marquee styles, can make great use of the closet brackets that are also sold by Panther.  There were four of us in the tent this year, and there was still plenty of space.  However, it was a good deal of work to set up and maintain, so it now is being use by my household as our common tent/shade fly (it also worked beautiful to house guests waiting during my vigil a few years ago).

The next tent in line was the 18X18 Seam Engineered Rectangular Marquee.  Rectangular marquees are also something we have in abundance in our camp, so I am familiar with other set-up options on those as well.  There are, however, things I would never, ever again order in this type of tent.

• Seam Engineering - Never, ever again.  I understand the benefits (which are described in detail on page 16 of Panther's catalog), but I hate it.  In addition to decreasing the tent size from 18X18 to 16.5X16.5, it places the poles closer together.  They are just tight enough that I cannot walk through the opening while carrying a cooler (and I am not a big person).  It also means there are MORE poles to drag around with you.
• 7ft Walls - The tents in camp with 6ft walls can have the stakes set in just a bit closer than those with 7ft walls, which means it is more stable while taking up less space.  In years when we were crammed in tightly, my stakes were always a bit too close and I had to go out and fuss with them daily. (This was also an issue with the Oval Marquee.) If I ever got another marquee, it would have 6ft walls and anyone taller can just duck.
• Single pole - This, at large sizes, could have the same issues over time as the Carousel Pavilion did, with the pole tearing through the roof if the webbing at the top happens to go.  I know people like this option because it leaves more space inside for large beds and the like.  If I got another tent like this, it would use a ridge pole with two supports.  The tents with single poles in our camp (which sits on a slight slope, which means that tents are never totally level) tend to have more water collect in the corners during a storm than those with ridge poles do.

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I want to make a note here about Shade Flies for tents.  These come in two types, one is a Side Mount Ridge Fly and the other is a Flat Fly.  The former is fantastic, as it can be left up during a torrential downpour because it is angled in a way that does not readily collect water.  The flat style of fly will collect water and can eventually collapse a tent.  For these you need to tilt the poles every time it rains to prevent this (though I have also seen people add other internal structures to avoid this fate as well).

Finally, we arrive at my current (and very much loved) set-up, the Norman Saxon Tent.  I will admit that I resisted this idea for years.  My boyfriend suggested these over and over and I was very worried about about all the things I heard about all of the things I have heard about not having any space in these things.  He bought one for himself, and after a year of him using that and my friends and I using the Marquee, I realized he was correct and he got me one as well.  

We use one wedge for small events, or even occasionally for mundane camping and there is plenty of space for a queen sized bed and our gear, as well as a chair in the front for him.  For Pennsic, we often are moving around at different hours (and he likes to take naps), and plus I bring a ton of stuff (class materials and garb, garb, garb) so we take two and set them up side-by-side.

This style of tent goes up quickly.  I am not strong enough to lift the ridge, but I can roll out the tent and stake everything down, get a few hands to insert the ridge and lift the roof and then I can finish on my own from there.  The whole thing can go up in less than 20 minutes.

There is also plenty of room in there for me for War, despite the amount of things I take.  I have a cot that is bigger than a twin bed and nearly as tall, a small dresser and a cooler.  I have tons of very large bins that get shoved against the walls in the back half of the tent and I have rigged a small closet rod (which I will post about later at some point) that hangs from the ridge in the very back of the tent for my garb.  Honestly, there is more than enough space for me, even with my excess of stuff.  In the center photo below you can see his tent set up as vigil tent a few years ago.  The cot in the back is a tall XL cot and there was enough room to have it running across the width of the tent rather than the length.

Another comment I want to make about the wedge tents is that they require zero maintenance once they are set up.  With a marquee or regent you will usually need to adjust the ropes several times during a long event (sometimes even daily).  These require no effort at all.  We also have had his wedge tent set up on a mundane camping trip that had 60mph wind gusts and it never leaked nor budged.  They are very solid beasts.

A note about Ground Cloths.  This is a very contentious item on some of the forums.  People love them, hate them, have other alternatives, you name it.  I will note that we have the Panther Super Ground Cloth for each of our tents.  I personally love them.  This is a canvas cloth that is cut to the size of your tent and has a plastic tarp sewn to the bottom.  Having the correct sized floor is very important to properly set up tents like the wedges, which can be staked to the ground before raising the roof.  The tarp on the bottom means that I don't have to carry an extra tarp (though some people do).  These last a very long time, and we take care to fold them so that none of the canvas floor touches the icky damp tarp portion when packing-out from Pennsic.  When I get home I lay them out on the pavement in the drive way, tarp side up, and bake off all the gross stuff in the sun, sweep it clean and then flip it over to bake some more (and ensure it is totally dry).

I have one other thing to add to my tent commentary, and that is regarding mundane tents.  For an event like Pennsic, you really do not want a nylon tent if you can help it.  Fortunately, there are a number of canvas tent options these days that not only breath well, but they also set up with ease (and take up little storage space compared to a pavilion), and, honestly, they also can blend in a little better.

There are two companies that make very similar canvas tents, Springbar and Kodiak.  Friends of ours have several Springbar tents, and when we were looking for a more portable option (that was not nylon) to using our wedges for mundane camping, we decided to test drive the Kodiak.  I have to say that I love these tents.  The components come in two bags, one for the poles and one for the tent.  This means that I can carry these items myself as separately they do not weigh overly much.  My boyfriend could set one up by himself, but I need help to raise the ridge (the same as I do with the wedge).  They go up in mere minutes and take up little space in the car compared to a pavilion.  If you are on a tight budget and cannot afford a pavilion yet (or if you have space constraints such as apartment living), something like this might be the best option for you.  The Kodiak tent we have even has an adorable little built in sun shade on the front, and there are accessories for inside that allow you to store some things up near the ceiling.  I cannot recommend these tents enough for those who can not yet make the commitment to a period tent.

There is plenty of headroom in all of these options, and the bow sides mean that you have less of a slant and less wasted floor space.  The bottom of the Kodiak is very heavy vinyl that keeps water out and we have never had an issue with the tent leaking else where either.  We do use a small tarp under this, because you cannot as effectively bake the bottom of the tent the way you do with a Panther Super Ground Cloth.

We have the "8 Person" 10X14 foot Kodiak.  There is a couple in our camp that has one as well and it is more than sufficient for them for Pennsic (and more comfortable than their previous nylon tent).  I do not know that I would consider going smaller, but they do have other sizes as well, including a 10X10.  (There is also a cabin tent style that I do not recommend if you want fast set up.  They are really neat in terms of the shape and size, but take much longer to set up than the flex-bow design of the tents we have.)
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10X14 Options

​10X10 Options
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Aprondresses are very simple and very quick to make, depending on which pattern you choose.  The fit of the straps, however, can be something that drives people completely insane over time.  If you find that you are continually futzing with your straps, here are a few things you might want to look at to help troubleshoot the source of your problems.  Note that most people blame brooches, but they were historically large and heavy for the most part.  This often causes reenactors to initially choose brooches from other eras or locations to reduce size and weight, because they worry about them dragging the dress down, but a well fitted dress, with properly sized straps, make even the largest brooches feel nonexistant when worn.
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Many of the tips below will require you to test and re-test a garment and strap length.  If you want to quickly test out the length of the straps without having to remove them from the dress and re-attach, you can just add a few sturdy whipstitches to the loop end of the long strap to effectively shorten them.  (See diagram to the left.) This is also a great tip to use if you swap out between different sets of brooches that might have different pin lengths.

• Fabric: What fabric are your straps made from?  What fabric is the dress?  In archeological example, we see that often the straps do not match the dress, with linen straps and wool dresses sometimes found.  Linen is sturdy and, if it is quality linen, has little stretch.  (Some of the colored linen at Joanns, as well as that from some inexpensive vendors, is very short staple, meaning that the linen fibre is chopped up to bits and processed like cotton.  This will stretch more than other types of linen and might need some reinforcement.)  You can replace the current straps with stronger ones, or add a linen cord or heavier linen or even sturdy silk cloth core to the straps to help eliminate stretch.  On the "Viking Clothing (SCA-Style)" Facebook group, Astri Bryde recommends using the selvedge in the straps to help combat stretch.  I personally find that suggestion to be brilliant as most modern selvedges tend to be very sturdy. 
  
  If the dress itself is stretching (I have one wool dress that is somewhat loosely woven, and it stretches like crazy with heavy brooches), then add a bit of linen to the top of the dress itself inside, or even add a more sturdy tablet woven band or strip of silk to the outside to combat this stretch.  (A really stretchy cloth might require you to line the entire bust area with something more sturdy, but take it one step at a time when testing solutions.)

• Build: Everyone is built different.  Sometimes sloping shoulders or other things might mean that you need to angle the straps differently on your dresses.  You can change this angle by setting the straps closer together in the back than the front and testing that out.

 

• Are you using short front loops on the dress or are you pinning directly through the fabric of the garment?  Using loops allows you to strain your cloth less, and preserve it longer (constantly re-pinning through the cloth itself will both damage and stretch your precious aprondress textiles).

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• Construction of straps:  There are several ways historically to fold the cloth to create the straps.  My personal favorite is to fold the cloth in half lengthwise and press it, and then fold each of those ends in and press again and whip stitch the edge closed.  This looks like double fold bias tape, but is not cut on the bias (straps cut on the bias would be very, very stretchy).  Also, if you have the option to cut the straps on the grain, rather than across it, that might eliminate some issues.

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Are you going to Pennsic?  Have you registered?  If not, remember that the deadline is June 16, 2018!  Get your registrations in!:  ​https://www.cooperslake.com/prereg/account/index.php

I know I am a bit lax on the Pennsic posts this year, but things have mundanely been crazy, and add to that a new kitton addition to the house... well, I am swamped with life and am trying to play catch up here, and everywhere else as well.  If you need to see totally adorable pics of him, they can be found here:  https://themerryrosette.weebly.com/

But back to Pennsic.  My classes are officially all on 8/7.  I will be teaching my "Deeper Look at Textiles & Trim of Viking Age Dress" at noon (it is a 2 hour class) and that will be immediately followed by my Beyond the Aprondress class.  At this moment I am planning to also teach a "Basic Viking Clothing with No Regreats" class, that would discuss how I would approach crafting a Viking Age wardrobe based on what I know NOW (so that I could avoid my past mistakes).  The plan is tentatively to do this as a traveling class and I will teach several sessions on the same day in several private camps.  I will update this blog with information once I have it all set up.

I also want to toss out some links to my older articles, because they tend to be well received by new folks each year.

Tips for Enjoying your First (or Tenth) Pennsic:
 awanderingelf.weebly.com/blog-my-journey/tips-for-enjoying-your-first-or-tenth-pennsic
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Pennsic Prep list:
awanderingelf.weebly.com/blog-my-journey/pennsic-prep-and-my-list-for-newcomers

Dressing for the Weather:
awanderingelf.weebly.com/blog-my-journey/dressing-for-the-weather

What else do I totally love that has improved my Pennsic life?  A very silly LED light that charges from a USB source.  It was cheap so I got one to try out last year and discovered this one little light is enough to light my entire tent at night.  I only charged it once during War (my BF has been using his for various tasks since September, as well as a camping trip, and only just charged it last weekend).  And with the USB cord attached, I can charge it directly from my Goal Zero.

(This document is still in a draft stage, but I have had enough conversations about my interpretaion of this recently that I felt it ok to put forward my thoughts while I finalize the language of this piece.)

A number of Viking Age graves, particularly those from 10th Century Birka, contain fragments of finely pleated linen, presumed to be remnants of an under gown.  This type of cloth is frequently associated with Birka, where 52 graves were identified as containing linen serks, and of those 21 were showed evidence of having been finely pleated. (Thunem, Serk)  Birka was not the only location of such textiles, as there was a pleated linen shirt in Hedeby grave 5/1964. (Hägg, Textilien, 325).  Pleated linen shirts are also found in grave goods from sites in Russia, the best examples of which are Gnezdovo and Pskov.

Agnes Geijer, who did the original work with the Birka textiles, revised her thoughts on the local origin of linen garments to acknowledge Inga Hägg’s theories that not only the textiles, but likely the garments themselves were imported as ready made items from Kiev.  Geijer also notes that she believes it possible that unpleated serks at Birka might well just represent cloth from which the pleating has been washed out and that more of shirts might originally have born pleats.  (Geijer, Textile Finds, 88)

Grave 5/1964 from Hedeby had remains of a Slavic style pleated shirt outside of the wagon in the entombment.  Inga Hägg comments that “some fragments of pleated shirts found at Hedeby might be associated with the dress of women belonging to the Slavic aristocracy”. 

Many reconstructions I have seen rely on methods of pleating that become undone when the garment is washed.  Included in these are to use a needle and thread to draw the fabric into pleats that run the whole length of the body, but not using any strings to fix the pleats permanently (very time consuming to have to repeat each time) and the “broomstick” method that involves tightly binding or twisting the garment while wet and allowing it to dry, which causes creases to form in the garment (the pleats in this method do not seem that they would follow arc formed by the pleats in the Birka example, and again, the pleating is not permanent).  There have also been interesting methods of construction associated with some of these reconstructions, including those that rely on Eura dress patterning (an item I question with to begin with, because it makes little sense for me to base Finnish wool dress on a leather garment from many centuries prior).

My understanding of the the time involved in spinning and weaving, as well as other daily tasks in period, makes me consider it unlikely that these garments would have used methods that needed to be repeated every time the item was washed.  For my reconstruction, I choose to look for permanent methods of fixing the pleats. Because of the prevailing theories on the source of the garments, I also opt to look to the Slavic and Russian sources, to attempt to define the construction methods.

Textile Evidence: Birka

Remains of the pleated dresses at Birka tend to be fragments of textiles preserved because of their proximity of the large oval brooches in the grave.  Because textile finds were not always properly categorized at the time of the original Birka excavations, there is some question as to the position of the brooches in the grave (nor do we know which was right or left).  This leads to various interpretations of the garment because one cannot state for sure the direction of the pleats.  Another factor that can compound this mystery is the tendency of the brooches to shift as the body decomposes, which could pull the pleats out of their normal alignment.  Hilde Thunem notes in her research on the serk that the pleats tend to run parallel the the brooch needle and then bend to one side.  Without knowing which brooch is right or left, this could mean that the pleats fan out from a neckline or possibly run along the body and bend towards the arm.

There is one additional bit of evidence that can help aid in forming a reconstruction, and that is the and that is linen fragments that are preserved by metal objects laying along side the body in the grave.  Grave 1062 from Birka shows pleats running horizontally on the arm but bears no evidence of pleating within the brooches themselves.  (Hägg, Kvinnodräkten, 17)

The Birka linens average 38-51 threads to the inch with a balanced weave.

​Despite the fact that the pleats remaining in the Birka brooches are often difficult to read in older photographs, it appears that the pleats are regular and often form firm lines. They are the less ordered  “wrinkles” as you would see in a “broomstick skirt” type of pleating.

The graves at Birka, as mentioned before, have evidence of 21 possible pleated serks.  The chart below lists the graves, as well as the dates and possible evidence of the garment being closed in the front with a small brooch.  All of these graves contained oval brooches as well, but that is not meant to be a statement that the serk was always associated with that type of costume.  Rather, it is likely that we have as many fragments as we do because of their proximity to the brooches.  Information on small brooches is also added here, because it shows the presense of a neck slit and brooch closure for the garment (something unnecessary with the V-neck construction with Eura style garments).

Textile Evidence: Gnëzdovo (Burial Ц-301) and Pskov (Ц-06-CtB3IV)

The garments from these finds are both crafted of linen that have folds at the neck and a sewn on “cord” or bolster at the collar.  Pskov used that cord as a tie while there is no fastener noted in the other example.  The fragments of the Pskov garment are all dyed blue, while Gnëzdovo has varying qualities of cloth, as well as both blue and possibly undyed textile, as part of its construction. (Orfinskaya and Pushkina, Gnëzdovo, 45-48)

The Gnëzdovo garment is made in two sections, undyed coarse linen tabby for the top half and fine dyed blue linen for the lower portion.  For the neckline the cloth is folded, hemmed and gathered in relatively large folds.  The blue skirt is also pleated, using three rows of thread, with one addition.  There is a tapered piece of the garment that is theorized to be part of a tapered sleeve or a gore.  The cloth for the body of the garment was at least 70cm wide and the thread count is 8/8 threads per cm for the coarse cloth and 12/16 threads per cm for the fine blue cloth.  There is no neck closure found with this garment.  It is believe that the top of the dress was made of coarse cloth because it would not be seen under another garment (while the blue skirt would be).  The pleats on the top of the dress were coarse, but those on the skirt were more fine, and fixed in place with a number of threads.  (Orfinskaya, ATN, p45; Linen dress, 258)

The Pskov dress is dyed blue tabby linen with a thread count of 18/14 threads per cm.  It is believed that it was approximately 40cm wide, with the body being comprised of two panels of that width sewn together with a center front seam.  The neck is comprised of fine pleats fixed with a thread and bound with cloth.  It is tied closed at the neck (there is a central slit in the garment where two textile panels meet) with the cord that holds the pleats along the top. (Orfinskaya, ATN, p48; Zubkova, NESAT X, p299)

Iconic Evidence

In addition to textile remains, I have looked at some pictorial evidence that suggest the chosen elements of my recreation.  Long sleeves, often wumpled at the wrists, are seen in imagery from various Russian sources, including drinking vessels.  This is also a fashion that shows up repeatedly in Saxon illumination during the Viking Age as well.

One of the most interesting items that seems to show a dress with vertical pleats on the front, long tapered sleeves that fall into folds up the arm is the Revninge Figure found in eastern Denmark in 2014.  Though believed to be of Viking manufacture, the costume is strikingly like proposed recreations of Slavic costume that show a panova (poneva) skirt and pleated garment with long sleeves pushed up at the wrist to form folds.

My Interpretation

For my reconstruction, I worked with a tightly pleated neckline such as was seen in the Pskov fragment, as well as tapered sleeves found there.  Having the pleating drawn up by a thread (in my case, three, similar to the Gnëzdovo waist pleats) allows me to have a permanent pleating structure that does not need to be reset after the garment is washed.  My pleats are approximately 6mm deep and very compact (I tried to gauge the size and number of pleats in the Pskov fragment based on the scale in one of the articles).  At the moment, the neckband also serves as a tie, but I might eventually replace the tie with a small brooch (as that seems to be an available option based on the number of Birka graves that contain both a pleated serk and a small brooch at the neck).  This type of pleating conforms to direction alignment of some of the pleats found in brooches from Birka.

I opted for the overly long sleeves seen in Russian art and in the Revninge Figure.  This choice allows for creases to form up the arm that round around the arm, rather than running along the length of it, conforming with the evidence of Birka 1062.  Again, this type of creasing does not require continued effort on part of the wearer.  After washing the creases will fall out, but even wearing the garment for a short span of time will allow the creases to reform.

I opted, at this time, for the simplest pattern possible, that uses rectangular construction with little or no waste.  I based my garment on a diagram by D. Rushworth.  I did extend the length of the sleeves.  In my garment, the sleeves were cut as a rectangle the width I wanted, and then tapered after the fact.  When I attempt to craft another garment like this, I will cut out the sleeve shape and use the excess from either side to form gores for the body (and make it a bit less wide, with less tightly stacked pleating in the neckline).

On thing that bothers me a bit about some of the diagrams from Hagg’s work with the Birka pleated linen as that it appears that some of the pleats might have a more steep curve.  While my hypothetical garment conforms to the extant necklines, and some of the proposed paths for creasing, it does not fall in line with a few of the finds.  (Though I still wonder how much shifting of items in situ changed the orientation of the pleats as well, as I can see how it could make a curve more extreme.)

Putting on my dress actually helped clarify this for me, to some extent.  In the photos of me wearing the dress, I have it on with a wrap-style garment, rather than a more fitted one.  The looseness of the over dress allows the linen serk to hang without excessive shifting and bunching up under the arms.  Further, my garment is tailored to me.  The arm is wide enough to allow movement and the square underarm gusset is placed as high as I can with out it binding.  If this garment were made to be sold as is, that gusset might not sit as high.  This, plus wearing it under a dress that at least as the top hem being fairly fitted, can create bunching and wrinkles in the under arm and on the chest near it which might affect the direction of the creases.  I have not tested the pattern of the wrinkles to any extent, but I look forward to doing so in the future to see if they correspond at all to the diagrams from Birka.  

One additional consideration that I might implement into a future design is of “shoulder pieces” which can be seen in later Slavic and Russian shirt designs, and are thought to be possible on the garments from Pskov and Gnëzdovo.

References

Andersson, Eva. Tools for Textile Production from Birka and Hedeby (The Birka Project for Riksantikvarieambetet), 2003.

Bender Jørgensen, Lise.  Northern European Textiles until AD 1000, Aarhus University Press), 1992

Bender Jørgensen, Lise.  Prehistoric Scandinavian Textiles, (Det Kongelige Nordiske oldskriftselskab), 1986.

Blindheim, Charlotte, “Drakt og smykker”, Viking 11.

Geijer, Agnes.  Birka III, Die Textilefunde aus Den Grabern.  Uppsala,1938.

Geijer, Agnes.  “The Textile Finds from Birka,” Cloth and Clothing in Medieval Europe (Heinemann Educational Books), 1984.

Hägg, Inga.  Die Textilefunde aus der Siedlung und us den Gräbern von Haithabu (Karl Wachlotz Verlag). 1991.

Hägg, Inga.  Die Textilefunde aus dem Hafen von Haithabu (Karl Wachlotz Verlag). 1984.

Hägg, Inga. Textilien und Tracht in Haithabu und Schleswig. Die Ausgrabungen in Haithabu 18 (Karl Wachlotz Verlag), 2016.

Hägg, Inga, “Kvinnodräkten i Birka: Livplaggens rekonstruktion på grundval av det arkeologiska materialet”, Uppsala: Archaeological Institute, 1974

Hägg, Inga.  “Viking Women’s Dress at Birka,” Cloth and Clothing in Medieval Europe (Heinemann Educational Books), 1984.

Hermitage Museum. “Ibn Fadlan’s Journey: Volga Route from Baghdad to Bulghar” , 2016.

Orfinskaya, Olga and Tamara Pushkina. ”10th century AD textiles from female burial Burial Ц-301 at Gnëzdovo, Russia”, Archaeological Textiles Newsletter 53, 2011.

Orfinskaya, Olga. “Льняное платье X века из погребения Ц-301 могильника Гнёздово” (Linen dress from the burial of Ts-301 burial ground Gnëzdovo).

Orfinskaya, Olga and Y. V. Stepanova. “On the Issue of Origins of Russian Dress with Shoulder Straps”.

Stabrova, M.A. Ancient Russian Costume, Nauka Publishers, 1997.

Thunem, Hilde. “Viking Women: Undedress”, 2014. http://urd.priv.no/viking/serk.html

Zubkova, E.S, Orinskaya, O.V, and Mikhailov, K.A. “Studies of the Textiles from the Excavation of Pskov in 2006,” NESAT X, 2009.

Zubkova, E.S, Orinskaya, O.V., and Likhachev, D.  “New Discovery of Viking Age Clothing from Pskon, Russia.”  (Notes and summary by Perer Beatson) http://members.ozemail.com.au/~chrisandpeter/sarafan/sarafan.htm

There are certain books that you just need in your collection.  Some of them cover only one topic, such as Birka III (the textiles volume of the Birka finds), often though, the best gems are single articles within a larger book.  The entire series of the NESAT books (North-European Symposium for Archaeological Textiles) is worth looking at if you have a chance.  If you are in the US, most of them are available via ILL, and several are still in print or available as a Kindle edition.  Every single one of them has a valuable article for the Viking Age (or ever several).  I believe some of the articles in the older volumes are starting to show up on sites like Academia.edu for free download, but I still recommend taking the time to look at the books for yourself as even some of the peripheral topics can help you get a good feel for a period or a practice.

I will concentrate on Volume 7 and 10 here, and will cover the other still-in-print volumes (11, 12 and 13) later this week, hopefully.  13 was just released, so I have not yet gotten that one myself, but I will include some information on it as well.  (I will eventually review all of the books, but am starting with these.)