Earlier this year I picked up these small books online for women's dress in the 14th and 15th century. I don't know that they are perfect, but they absolutely can help someone make a very good start into an era.

What I like about these books is that they are brief and loaded with images. They pretty simply show the silhouettes and basic construction for the garments, and give necessary details on colors, cloth, and accessories.

I know that the Medieval Tailor's Assistant covers much of this as well, but seeing it in a VERY compact form is also nice. Even if someone is not interested in going fully period or sewing their entire kit themselves, the images here can help them shop for things that perhaps can give them a look that they desire.

Not everyone wants to research (or research every single thing they do) and guides like this become very handy to help folks fill in the gaps where needed.

You can sometimes get these on Amazon, but they are also available from the publishers site (Chronocopia Press). https://chronocopia.se/

15th Century Women's  https://amzn.to/49GKz7M

15th Century Men's https://amzn.to/3NThflr

1360-1425 Women's https://amzn.to/3QzCLMA

I know I have been an infrequent poster of late, but there has been a wealth of excellent research published in the last year and I plan to get around updating this site with some of it.  I want to start with Projekt Forlog.  This project, and website, is run by Tomáš Vlasatý who is an incredible independent researcher.  The articles he compiles are incredibly useful to those in the reenactment community. 

He also has the most impressive collections of research materials for the Early Medieval period in Europe and he has been invaluable in getting me additional info I have needed for my own projects at times.  

I highly recommend checking out his articles (weapons, armor, clothing, firestrikers.... there is SO much) and also his book sale page.  If you like what you see, please consider donating via his sponsorship page as his research IS his work.

https://sagy.vikingove.cz/en/articles/​

This book is fantastic.  I sadly missed my chance to buy it right before it went out of print (I had to choose between this volume and Heckett's book on the Dublin headcoverings), and I regretted not picking it up.  I did ILL and read the book, but that is not the same as having it in some form.  

If you are interested in Saxon costume, or early period costume, you really must download this book, which is now offered for free here:  http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-281-1/dissemination/pdf/RR145.pdf

​This book covers textiles, textile production, clothing, embellishment, and jewelry.  If you are interested in this time period, this book easily offers enough material to get you started.

Below is the link to and article that discusses costume albums from 17th century Ottoman Empire.  The images are early 17th century and, despite that, are still used frequently by members of the SCA as documentation so I thought I would pass this one on.

267www.academia.edu/35176385/_Dressing_a_Citys_Demeanour_Ottoman_Costume_Albums_and_the_Portrayal_of_Urban_Identity_in_the_Early_Seventeenth_Century_Textile_History_48_no._2_Nov._2017_248-267

I will note here that the Herjolfsnes finds are dated several hundred years past the Viking Age. However, most of the information on textile production is still highly relevant as the use of dual coated sheep and the warp-weighted loom continued longer in Greenland than it did in many other places.  These books are fantastic for that information alone.  Beyond that, it is also important that Inga Hägg, in her work with the Hedeby textiles and garments, describes the construction of the garments there to be very much like those at Herjolfsnes.  Indeed, Hedeby shows us that the Viking Age Norse had some advanced methods of tailoring such as set-in sleeves, and, with some careful research, the patterns in Medieval Garments can help you to construct items that would fit well into the late Viking Age.  I personally used the books to pattern my first gown which I used for my Beyond the Aprondress class and handout.  ( ​awanderingelf.weebly.com/blog-my-journey/beyond-the-aprondresss ) 

I actually have both of these books in an electronic format, but also own the hard copies as well (and tend to reference those more often than my electronic copies).  They are great reference volumes and I often take Woven Into the Earth to events if I need to illustrate the process of crafting wool in period without taking my own bulky display. 

Because I also like to include some additional resources that fit well with these volumes, I also recommend downloading the two articles below:

Dress, Cloth and the Farmer's Wife by Michele Hayeur Smith:  This article gives additional details on textiles from Greenland, but also provides insightful information into what was being manufactured/used in Iceland at that time.  It can help provide insight into how the Greenland cloth evolved, and this information assist a Viking Age researcher better determine what information in the books above might be unique to Greenland.
www.academia.edu/7441906/Dress_Cloth_and_the_Farmer_s_Wife_Textiles_from_%C3%98_172_Tatsipataa_Greenland_with_Comparative_Data_from_Iceland

The Burgundian Hat from Herjolfsnes Greenland by Michele Hayeur Smith: This study redates one of the hats from Herjolfsnes.  The information given is very fascinated and shows us exactly how precious (and how often reused) cloth was in period.
www.academia.edu/23015256/The_Burgundian_hat_from_Herjolfsnes_Greenland_new_discoveries_new_dates
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Many cool Viking age things to be had here:  http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/psas/volumes.cfm

Links to the papers for the International Medieval Congress gatherings.

http://www.distaff.org/?q=taxonomy/term/15

For some time there has been a rather comprehensive thesis available online about clothes from the Netherlands in the early Middle Ages.  I saw that the book, Clothes Make the Man: Early Medieval Textiles from the Netherlands, that came out of that project was finally published last month and I posted a link for it on my FB page.  A friend then shared the open access link for the work and... well... go right now and pick this one up.

This book has VERY detailed information on the textiles from the finds (many of which, while not Scandinavian, are still Viking Age).  The later part of the book gives detailed analysis of what the costumes of these people might have been like, including drawings for male and female garments.  If someone was interested in building out a persona/kit for this time and place, this document is likely the best resource you could hope for.  It is pretty amazing.

Oh, and as a side note, if you want hats with "seam embellishments", this area actually has evidence of that practice in the Netherlands on high status items (note though, there are still no sprawling, giant herringbone stitches... this is compact narrow work comparable to Sutton Hoo and Mamman pillows).  Just thought I would toss that out there ;-)

https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/handle/1887/39627

ART has always had a number of issues available, for free, to the public.  Now, however, they have expanded that offering considerably.  There are some fantastic items in here for people interested in a variety of cultures and time periods!

http://www.atnfriends.com/