how to sew a costume, historical clothing, medieval clothing, viking viking costume, living history
The 1st piece of advice I often give to newbies in my Midgard - History Revival Society group is - do poor man's, it's simple, it's universal, you can go anywhere with it and no one wants to do it.
But if you choose a plain costume, you'll be showing history far more authentically, plus you won't have to worry about where which jewel came from and whether it's well put together - also great for those who go to those two or three events a year and have no ambition to invest thousands in their costume each year. In fact, well-chosen colours, material and cut will ensure you can show up at medieval events, not just on the early medieval timeline. You'll playfully go through antiquity and the High and Late Middle Ages as well, with only a few details to change.
I also draw on the experience that newcomers should help at events, and the pancakes on the fire don't look very dignified in the blue cloak :-D
I will gradually add here advice on what fabric to choose, what cut and accessories to choose.
I believe that everyone will find something here - we won't know 100% how it actually was, but we can try to show that we follow the current trends a bit. And since I am not only the organizer of the early medieval battle of Rogar, where the ticket is just the appropriate costume, I decided to publicly add some of my comments on the topic of COSTUME .
Because before you start sewing something new for the next season, you're probably thinking - if I'm going to sew it by hand, it better be worth it. And how many of us have already sewn a luxurious men's tunic - in diamond. How many of us have bought soft wool (if it has to be that wool?) and it was a weave totally unsuitable for the early Middle Ages? I guess we all have that one nonsensical piece. Or maybe you already have a piece of fabric that's totally awesome and you're overlooking it unnecessarily!
❓How do archaeologists actually preserve fibers and textile weaves?
You may be lucky and in the location you want to represent, people liked to die in the swamp. Cool! Such a bog is pretty complete and the textiles are generally well preserved. Or it froze somewhere and the good wolves left a piece of tunic on the ice. Yes!
There are hundreds of pieces of textiles in graves all over Scandinavia, and most of them are also discovered because they were attached to a piece of metal or imprinted on jewelry, brooches, needles, etc. The poorer classes don't have much of that sort of thing, and so the question is, how do we want to recommend any particular weaves from that?
?COOL MATH!
In the north we know textiles made of linen, wool, hemp, silk. And if we look at the representation of materials and weaves in the early medieval period, it clearly comes out as LEN in linen weave, WOOL in linen and twill weave. So focus on the visible weave, a little coarser, make those weaving lines nice to see, avoid the walled fabrics. On a good quality fabric, the pilling will happen spontaneously.
Colors would be great natural ones.
Just unbleached, undyed.
??Wool in the colors a coat could be is TOP - from creamy white to fifty shades of brown, mottled to almost black. You can then continue to dye these naturally.
? If you find chemically dyed wool in the bowels of your closet and you don't want to overdo it, our freelance craftsman/saddler/mixer in a cauldron costume.. will have colors that anyone could achieve with common herbs. Browns from nuts and barks, beiges, yellows from practically most herbs, not too rich greens and khakis, onion orange and morose pinks.
?We'll talk more about why and which fabric soon. What to call them and what fabric to ask vendors to google.
Now quickly! Look for plain weave, four- and three-ply twill in your stash, avoid diamond, herringbone and the like for now. Ruthlessly sort through what you can't get away with on your quest for a better reenactment to create a versatile costume that no one can say anything about in 5 years :)
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