Making a basic kit

Hey everyone! This post is for the people new to reenactment and who want to start making clothing. For the well seasoned ones here, feel free to share tips and tricks for the rest! Note that I am no professional and thus this is a basic guide to start, well, somewhere.

Part of my kit: a fancier two color linnen tunic, with thick linnen pants and wool leg wraps.

There are some much needed tools for making clothing. You will need a pair of fabric scissors, a soft measuring tape, a lot of bobby pins, a needle, some chalk or a piece of charcoal, wool or linnen thread and a piece of beeswax. I always use the latter to strengthen the thread before sewing.

For a good set you will need two of each: a linnen one as your under garments and a wool one as your outside garment. The linnen layer keeps you well isolated and your wool clean from sweat. It is really important to use the right fabrics, mostly linnens and wool. I myself use a medium to high wool mix for bigger projects, just to keep the budget a bit lower. But the 100% wool fabrics will give the closest outcome to historical times. Especially if you can find them handwoven by loom and dyed with plant coloring.

Tunic and pants made by me. This was in Haithabu last year.

The outfit above is made with linnen and a wool mix for the tunic. Both chemically dyed but in colors that would be available in these times. The leg wraps are handwoven and plant dyed by Speerbijter. The tunic and pants are handmade and fully handsewn too.

I have made some simple diagrams for how the patterns will look. I've done my very best to describe what I do when I make clothing, but the thing is, I'm not perfect and do most of it on the spot. It was hard to put everything in words hence I made some drawings as well. Oh, and always give your measurements an extra cm for the seam allowance! This prevents the garment from getting too small after sewing it all together.

My wool dress.

The first thing I want to talk about is the dress. I made a pretty full length white wool dress last year. I used a 80% wool blend from actiefstoffen. It's a really nice fabric and I put the more coarse side on the outside for a more authentic feel.

For a dress you will need between 3 and 6 meters of fabric, depending on how much gores you want and your size.

Dress

A: shoulder to desired lengt x2

B: arm length

Bl: armpit circumference

Br: will be a bit bigger than when you make a fist.

C: gusset 10x10cm or 12x12cm

D: from gusset till length x 25 / 30cm

E: neck circumference

For D I think you need to eyeball it a bit, that's what I always do. Just pin down a piece of fabric to see how it falls. The gusset sit under the armpit to create more space for movement. It can be left out if you use the Bl measurement on the sleeves, creating more room already. I always leave them in, so I have enough movement freedom and you don't put to much pressure on the seems. It also gives more space around the torso if you put the gores directly against them. On one tunic I have not done this, and gave it around 10cm before adding the gores, because of it it's a really tight squeeze. So I sometimes need some help getting out of it. But hey! Lesson learned.

Then for a tunic you need the same, but shorter. You could also change the number of gores, but both is good. For a tunic you will need between 1,5 and 2 meters. If you wear a small you could do with 1,5/1,6 but that would be without room for error. I usually go for just a bit more. More fabric is always good. It would helpt to measure a linnen tunic over a T-shirt and for the woolen one measure on top of a sweater. When you do it like this you can easily layer them later.

My brown stripy tunic.

The neck hole, E, can also be oval in form, this way it sits a bit wider. With a circle like in the drawing you get a close fitting neckline. And, do not forget like I did, that this will sit a bit more to the front of the tunic or dress. You can visualize this by looking at your standard T-shirt. These also have the same cut. When you make a collar, you can pick a strap of fabric and make it onto the neckline. You have a lot of different neckline you can choose from: round, oval, with a slit, without a slit or even the slit to one side. These slits can be closed with a brooch or with a flap like in the picture. The flap can also be closed in different ways, like with a bead or with two pieces of twine.

Pillbox hat

For the hat you will need a tops of 0,5 meters I think. All you need is your head circumference x +/- 20cm. Then when I had sown this shape together I put it on the rest of the fabric in the ''Pillbox'' shape, lined and cut it (B) with an extra centimeter for seam allowance.

Pants

A: navel till crotch x2

B: navel till desired length x leg circumference

Last but not least would be a pair of pants. This pattern is as basic as can be and not really historical as I could find no other like it. This is how I made my linnen summer pair. For this one you also need a piece of rope. I made mine with twining two pieces of wool yarn together into a strong cord. This will be used to close the pants around your waste. You make the long pieces into tubes, these will be sown onto the middle part. Best way to see how to put them together is to fold the middle part and the pants and put them together like in the diagram. I recommend pinning them to see if the size is good. I sadly made mine a bit too low cut, but luckily I'll always wear a tunic with it! For the closing part of the pants you fold the top part, which should stand open widely when fitting, into a tube, in which you can feed a piece of twine later on. This works best with a big needle or safety pin! I hope you get what I mean when I show you a picture!

The closing part of the pants.

I did find some other patterns for pants while searching around for this one. These are a lot more complicated and I see now why I choose the easy route. But, maybe I should give it a try for a next project. Get myself a nice woolen pants, with a fit based on a find.

There is a site I got recommended by a couple of reenactors. It contains a lot of information, finds, schematics and way more. I'll link it here: Project Forlǫg – Reenactment and science - Projekt Forlǫg

With a basic set of clothing, there is more to make an outfit complete. Like a belt, woven or leather, maybe a little coin purse, a needle case, a knife or a straw hat. Leg wraps are also a staple thing for the Viking look. These are usually woven on a loom and closed with a piece of leather, a hook or just tucked in. Leather turn shoes are also a must. I really love the feel of them, and if I could, I would always walk around in my own pair. I got mine from Recocraft, I'll make a little list of sites and links down below.

My Hedeby type 10 shoes.

With this basic clothing set you can start your reenactment journey. From this you can grow and make new things at events. Or as most reenactors do, on your way to your next event. 'Panic sewing' is the term used for this. It usually contains a healthy amount of, I can do that last part in the car and a part of, why am I doing this in the car? I am car sick....! There are some more additions for a kit, like needle bound socks and handwarmers, a hood for when it rains, brooches from the region and time you focus on, jewelry and don't forget blankets. These are a good thing to have: you can use them as a cloak, and to sleep under. A true win-win. On that note I'll leave this post here, there is so much more to talk about, but then this post becomes too long.

I hope this gives you a basic insight about what is needed for a starting kit! Remember nothing is perfect the first couple of tries. Don't get discouraged when something goes wrong, just try again or fix it. Just think like this, the people from times ago also made mistakes and just went with it. And if there is anything you would like to ask, or add, feel free to do so in the comments!

Links and websites:

Information: https://sagy.vikingove.cz/en/

Fabrics: WoolSome - historical fabrics for re-enactors , The Dutch Tailorette or GABY Wollen Stof from actiefstoffen are my go-to's.

Shoes: Recocraft – SHOP – Shoemaker and Leatherwork Workshop

Leg wraps: mine are from Speerbijter they also make amazing blankets! The Dutch Tailorette also has brooches, belts and needles for needle binding and sewing.

(This post was not sponsored by any of the named brands or shops.)