My tunics

The first tunic I made was with felted wool from the Dutch tailorette, she has a shop with nice fabrics, needles, fancy brooches and much more. I used a mix of four colors: green, yellow, brown and grey. When starting the pattern drawing I asked a good friend for help. He showed me what to measure and how to make sure to leave room for the seam. We did miscalculate how the neckline should work so I had to patch that up later to redo the collar. And, I made it to short, cause I forgot the fact that it would take some lengt from the bottom where it drapes over the shoulder. This was fixed with a band of brown fabric at the bottom, but that also had to be improved cause it kind of looked like a hoop skirt.

This was before I fixed the bottom.

This whole proces made a very pretty looking tunic, but in no way could I confidently say it was a piece I would wear at a reenactment event. I kept updating things to it so eventually I was happy with the end result. Having learned a lot about making a tunic, removing stitches, making cuffs and collars, adding details like wool bands and braids. And then in the end I decided to sell it. Yeah, shocker, after all that work. But yeah, like I said, it did not feel like a Viking age worthy project, so I made someone else happy with it. Which is also a good thing!

A while later I entered a raffle online and got lucky, I won two meters of a nice woolen fabric from Actiefstoffen. The wool was not a 100% one, but it was good enough for me! With looking for new fabrics I also think of what is most important at the moment, the 100% wool thing, being the most expensive option, or a small step back and get the same result with an 80% mix for a lot cheaper. (I'll go into a lot more detail about fabrics in another post!) This time the tunic rolled out without any problems, and I'm still happy to this day with how it turned out.

The brown tunic fresh from the needle.

After making this tunic I got inspired again to make a second try with the Skjoldehamn inspired tunic. This time I used a fabric from Woolsome shop combined with the scraps from my other tunic. I used the scraps for the collar and the flap. On which I also made an embroidery of two serpents. This was made with a chainstitch, something that had been found on fabric finds from this time period. The striped fabric from Woolsome shop is beautiful, the dark chocolat brown and grey work so well in making the tunic way fancier than it actually is. I also needed to keep in mind these stripes, to not ignore them while drawing my pattern: if I did, my sleeves would have been of different stripy patterns, and that was a no-go for me. Luckily I saw it in time and adjusted my lines.

My Skjoldehamn inspired tunic 2.0

 The end result was in my eyes, stunning, I love the stripes, the serpents, the colors, just everything. Except the itchiness of the wool. In the first couple of times that I've worn it I would use a small scarf for my neck, but after a while I made some adjustments to put a softer linnen on the inside of the tunic near the neckline. It is not based on any finds, but I figured, if they had the same tools as I did and even when wearing their linnen under the tunic (like i did.) and the itchiness would stay, then they also would have to get creative. You can't see it from the outside, and it works so, win-win situation for me!

Conclusion: keep trying and keep improving. The first thing will not be perfect, and so will the second and the third. But progress will be made. And you will have fun along the way!