Being part of the SCA comes with a few challenges. What era? Culture? Profession? All of these delineate your choices in clothing. The first items are always an interesting attempt. What period? What style? What fabrics? Details? Embellishments? All these choices just to make sure you aren’t “naked” at your first SCA event. (naked means that you are in modern clothing)
While I’ve been a seamstress for over 40 years, I hadn’t made anything specifically Viking, or for an SCA event. Dan had it easy. He knew who he was, a 850’s to 900’s French mercenary named Lothar de Sauvage. I had originally thought to be a Welsh woman in the 12 to 1400’s. Then I took a good look at the clothing. Cotehardies. It just didn’t inspire me. So, I thought about it. My mother’s side of the family comes from England, Wales, Ireland and Sweden. Hmm… Ten seconds later, I had it. Viking! 🙂 The family came from Gotland Sweden. It took a little longer to come up with a name. Unna Farulfsdottir.
I investigated various costume ideas. Birka, Hedeby and some of the other designs were good. A few thousand searches later, and I had enough information to start. Undertunics, apron dresses and jewelry.
Our first event was Battlemoor II. These are the clothes that I made. There were extra tunics, but most of the stuff was plain.
