Norse man’s tunic

Norse man’s tunic and pants, with a pillbox-style hat

In the Historical Sew Monthly April post, I showed a sneak preview of this post – my Norse tunic in the style of menswear.

My underdress pattern (not to scale)

I used the same pattern I use for my dresses, and shortened it for the tunic. I also added a contrast band to the hem, and reverse facings on the neckline and cuffs.

The navy linen I used for the trim is leftovers from the lining of my Italian costume and the blue linen underdress, while the red is from Fabrics-store.com. The original colour was Tomato Puree (I couldn’t find it in-stock on their website, so I can’t share a link) but the colour was too pink for me, so I overdyed it to get a deeper red.

I thought about doing some embroidery on them, but I figured I’d skip that for the time being – there’s little evidence of embroidery (though there is some) so I didn’t want to put the work into a first garment.

Sorry – this time around I don’t have any work-in-progress photos to share with you! I was hoping to get this done quickly, and wanted to do it for the Historical Sew Fortnightly April challenge, so didn’t spend as much time recording the details.

Hanger-photo below.. I really should have pressed it first!

Tunic made using the same basic pattern I use for dresses, just shorter. I also tried the reverse contrast facing I’ve been seeing a lot of online.

Historical Sew Fortnightly (details above the previous post)

The Challenge: April – War & Peace: the extremes of conflict and long periods of peacetime both influence what people wear. Make something that shows the effects of war, or of extended peace.

One reason women in the Viking Age might have worn men’s attire was in order to join on the battlefield.

Fabric: Overdyed lightweight linen from fabrics-store.com (the red), and lightweight linen (blue) from fabrics.com

Pattern: self-drafted, rectangular construction

Year: Viking Age

Notions: thread

How historically accurate is it? The pattern is entirely speculative, but I think it’s pretty good based on other known patterns of around the same time. The contrast fabric trim seems to be authentic based on tapestries.

Hours to complete: not sure

First worn: not yet

Total cost: The red linen was about $11.00/yard plus tax, shipping, and exchange. The blue fabric was scrap leftover from other projects, but was under $5.00/yard plus tax, shipping, and exchange.