Dried Herb linen Norse underdress

“Dried herb” linen underdress worn with a dark wool apron dress that I’ll blog about soon.

While sewing up the drab grey-green wool underdress, I also cut out and sewed up another in the “dried herb” lightweight linen from fabrics-store.com. This is the same measurement/pattern as the dark green wool underdress I made a while back, because it’s fitting and feeling very nice. I wanted another in wool, but with spring approaching, I figured one in linen would also be very practical! It seems like I’ve been doing a lot in green lately!

Drab grey-green wool Norse underdress

Drab grey – green Norse underdress

In March I had to do a huge clean-up in my sewing space, and part of that was finding homes for some of the beautiful fabric yardage I’ve acquired since the last time I did a big clean-up and put-away. Of course, cleaning up means that I’m fondling all of those fabrics… and that always inspires me to start sewing again!

Green wool underdress

Green wool underdress

In an earlier post, (about my new blue wool apron dress) I mentioned that having been laid off from my job, I had some time on my hands to sew. (Funny enough, right before I was laid off, I posted about getting new fabric and needing more time to sew… hadn’t wanted it to be fulfilled that way though!)

The next complete garment after the blue wool apron dress was a green wool underdress. I’m hoping that this dress will transition nicely between my Icelandic Viking Age wardrobe, my emerging Finnish Viking Age wardrobe, and perhaps could also go under some of my other over-dresses like my sideless surcotes.

Blue linen underdress

Focus on neckline and cuff of new blue linen underdress

 

In November I attended a Tavern night with the SCA group in Calgary, and found that my skirts (well, dresses) were just a bit too short for the cold weather. I made a mental note to explore the wearing of pants by women (there are stories in the Icelandic sagas that mention this..) and also to make a longer underdress that I could wear for indoor events like this.

I used some of the navy lightweight linen from Fabric.com that I got for less than $5.00/yard (before tax and shipping) – it was such a good price that I bought 25 yards of it, and have used it for a bunch of other things too… it washes up really nicely!

The pattern

I used the same kind of pattern I’ve used a few times before for general early-period underdresses.  I’ve used this same general pattern (with some variations) for my most recent brown linen underdress, a blue underdress (with an embellished hem), a white linen underdress (with embellished hem) and a pink & purple underdress, and the black linen underdress I blogged about last year.

Black linen underdress

Neckline embroidery stitches on black linen underdress

One of my most recent completed projects is a black linen underdress for my Viking wardrobe.  The same underdress is also suitable for a few other early-period costumes. The black linen is from Fabric.com, from my post not too long ago about online purchases.

The pattern

It was only after I made this dress that I thought about actually researching the underdress pattern – instead for this dress I used the same kind of pattern I’ve used a few times before for general early-period underdresses.  I’ve used this same general pattern (with some variations) for my most recent brown linen underdress, a blue underdress (with an embellished hem), a white linen underdress (with embellished hem) and a pink & purple underdress.