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Gaeira's Anvil...BLOG
Metalsmithing Resources
* Sawing Tips
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Personal A&S Projects
- Viking Apron Dress
- Viking Under Dress
- Tablet Woven Belt
- Tablet Woven Belt, 2nd
- Woven Pouch
- Shawl
- Cloak
RESEARCH
Viking Age: Jewelry
Metallic
- Construction
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Non-Metallic
- Lampwork, Glass Beads
Viking Age: Textiles
- Clothing
- Female Clothing
- 'Apron' Dress / VAD
- Hood
- Kaftan
- Leg Coverings NEW
Period Fiber Arts
- Fiber: Flax
- Fiber: Hemp
- Fiber: Lime Bast
- Fiber: Icelandic Wool
- Spinning
- Weaving
- Wool Felting
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Tablet Weaving
- Nålebinding
- Sprang and Fingerloop
- Icelandic Textiles
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* Stitches and Seams
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Miscellany
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ICELANDIC VIKINGS
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IDD Guilds
Web: IDD Metalsmiths' Guild
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My Personal Tips and Suggestions
- Before you wash your fabric, either sew by hand a Whip or Edge Stitch, or with a sewing machine, a large Zig-Zag Stitch right along the edge of your fabric (see image below) at a lower tension to it is easy to remove afterwards. This should greatly reduce the amount of weft and/or warp threads that come undone and knot up. You can save yourself a mess in your washing machine and reduce the amount to fabric that you will lose due to this. You can use any color thread (even cheap thread) since you will most likely be removing it either before or after cutting the fabric.
- Wash your fabric* and all textile decorative elements*, that you will be sewing onto your clothing, before cutting and sewing. It is your choice if you wash them 1-3 times, just be sure that you have removed all of the sizing. Depending on the type and quantity of sizing: water absorption, water resistance and ability to be dyed changes and can affect your fabric in different ways.
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Wash them* the same way you will wash them after you start wearing them.** Different washing methods (hand, machine or dry cleaning) and water temperatures cause different wear & tear and shrinkage to the fabric.
- Using a machine dryer could shrink your fabric, especially wool and even felt, pill or fuzz wool.
- Due to shrinkage, always start with at least 5-20% more fabric (length and/or width), especially for wool, then what you need for your patterns to account for fabric shrinking due to washing.
- Depending on the fiber, the warp and weft shrink at different percentages, but warp generally shrinks a bit more then weft.
- Iron your fabric, especially linen, before starting to cut and sew. If your fabric is suppose to be wrinkled then you can skip this step.
- When sewing seams, try to always iron before each step.
This makes the creases sharper. When you press to the side or fold over your seam allowance, you get cleaner seams and have an easier time sewing.
- If you will be dying your fabric, fiber (yarn, etc.) or textile decorative elements, dye them all together to be sure you get a similar color. DO keep in mind different fibers and materials dye differently. Different packages of dye could dye differently, though manufactured dyes do this less then natural dyes.
- Do not forget to add your seem allowances and hem measurements to your calculations for your patterns!
- Just like in carpentry, 'measure twice and cut once', better yet measure 3x. Check your calculations before cutting.
** It is best to test a swatch of fabric before you do this to your whole piece of fabric: when washing wool for the first time or two, before cutting and sewing, you can use the highest water temperature and machine dry to be sure it shrinks as much possible. Please note: This will most likely felt your wool, some wool fabrics might pill or fuzz, test your fabric in advance and decide what you want to do.
Hems
If we cut our tunic hem straight across is won't necessarily hang straight when we put it
on.
Geometry definitely plays a big part in that, as does our body's geography. If we have wide hips and a flatter tummy and bum, then the front and back hem hangs lower then at the sides. Similar if one has narrower hips, but a rounder bum and tummy, the hem looks higher at the front and back.
We can choose to try and make it look straighter by pinning the hem while we are wearing it then sewing it, this gives the illusion of it being straight.
I's been suggested to me to try and not match up pieces bias-to-bias for a seem if at all possible. Especially not for heavy fabric or on very long seems.
Bias edges don't have much structural strength or support (since the weight is not taken up by the warp or weft threads directly) so when you sew them to one another their combined weight (depending on the weave, fiber type and clothing pattern) will buckle, warp and stretch out.
On a cloak, where the seems can be very long for someone tall, we can let it hang for several days, even for a week, before pinning the hem and cuting and sewing it. This way the fabric, especially bias sections, can stretches out as far as it will likely go. So once it's all sewn and worn the hem will more then likely not warp too much more and look straighter.
Others' Tips
Period Patterning & Construction Made Easy:
Tunics & Gowns for Every Body (7-page, PDF) *****
by Lady Tat'iana Negoshka Danilova & Lady Nastasiia Ivanova Medvedeva
from Tasha.gallowglass.org
Mangling Linen ***
on Awanderingelf.weebly.com
- "In the Viking era the fabrics were pressed smooth with a glass smoothing stone (also called a slickstone) on a board."
Tips & Techniques (main page) *****
by Mary Corbet's Needle 'n Thread
Viking Embroidery Stitches and Motifs *****
Metallic Trims for Some Early Period Personae
by Carolyn Priest-Dorman / Þóra Sharptooth
Rounding the Bottom Hem of your Gores &
Tips for Half-Gore Segments &
Creating a Neckhole
by Katla járnkona
How to Apply Pearls and Beads in Smooth Lines
by Genoveva von Lubeck
The Medieval Buttonhole and How to sew a medieval buttonhole
by Tasha Dandelion Kelly
Tutorial: Altering Sleeves That Bug You
by Dorcas and other Tutorials
Newcomers' Clothing - A beginner's primer for clothing through the ages in the SCA (22-page, PDF)
by
Kimberly Barker / Katharine Devereaux
on Historiclife.com, their page of essays.
Regia Anglorum - Basic Clothing Guide Materials - What to Use and What to Avoid
and
Regia Anglorum - Basic Clothing Guide Construction Guide and Diagrams
on Regia Anglorum
Teaching Tools - Hand Sewing Basics
on Simplicity.com
Fabric Loops (Straps) on VAD
Viking Women: Aprondress
by Hilde Thunem
- Go down to the sections: 'Fabric loops', 'Loops ('Inside the right brooch' and ''Inside the right brooch'), 'Loop construction', 'The construction and use of the loops', etc.
The aprondress from Køstrup (grave ACQ)
by Hilde Thunem
- Go down to the sections, 'Loops ('The right brooch' and 'The left brooch')', 'Construction of the woollen loops', 'My interpretation (Loops:)', etc.
Loose Threads: Yet Another Costuming Blog: A Few Thoughts About Loops
by Cathy Raymond
http://mis.historiska.se/mis/sok/bild.asp?uid=337406
The Lengberg Castle Brassiere
Lengberg Castle brassiere (series of blog entries)
by Katafalk – Cathrin Åhlén [Blog & FaceBook, Pinterest]
- She includes several links to tutorials or how-tos on one of blog her entries.
- Her sewing skills are breathtaking. She also makes her own leather (and wood) period shoes and the wooden shoe lasts needed to make the shoes! Take a look at her Tumblr and Pinterest pages for inspiration and her LONG list of great tutorials. The tutorials include a long list of pre-1600 clothing and items as well as modern items and sewing tips.
Miscellany
Early medieval textile remains from settlements in the Netherlands. An evaluation of textile production
by
Chrystel R. Brandenburgh
Journal of Archaeology in the Low Countries 2-1 (May 2010)
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