History Visits
Christian Princess
c. 800 AD
A simple luxurious costume, decorated with embroidery in rich colours.
*This costume was put together in the mid 1990's. It was my best attempt at the time.
Ankle-length undyed linen, with wrist-length close-fitting sleeves and round slit neck.
Calf-length, with long sleeves and round neck. Gores added at sides for width. Contemporary designs embroidered on sleeves.
'Conical', open-fronted, with hood, clasped with bead and leather loop decorative stitching on all edges.
Flat-soled leather 'turn-shoes', with central seam and decorative thonging.
Hair
Left loose and flowing or tied back or braided.
Square veil with hand rolled hems. Tablet-woven fillet in four colours.
Sash with simple embroidery and metal clasp.
Ring and bead necklace with bone cross. Small bronze disc brooch.
Comment:
Following on from the Conversion period, as the Christian faith becomes more widespread, head-coverings begin to dominate and the fashion for hanging things from the belt diminishes.
This is a very rich outfit for the time as it uses a lot of dyes, particularly the expensive purple dye. The time consuming embroidery is done in silk.
undergarment ham, hacele
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This under-dress is based on the simple 'T' shape.
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It is actually made of fine cotton, but the weave is quite loose so looks like fine linen.
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The sleeves reach to the wrist and are just wide enough for the hand to pass through.
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The hems are folded over twice and stitched with running stitch in undyed linen thread.
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The neck is round with a slit, meaning that the neck-opening can be very close-fitting (to keep out draughts).
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I have put a facing inside the neck opening.
gown cyrtel, tunece
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The dress is also a simple 'T' shape.
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The sleeves are the same width from the shoulder to the wrist, but have an underarm gusset inserted for ease of movement.
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The gores (extra triangles of fabric at the sides) run from armpit to hem.
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The neck is wide and round, and all the hems are stitched with purple wool thread in a diagonal pattern.
The fabric for this dress is a sort of speckled pale green wool. This would have been achieved by using a mix of green and undyed wool, whilst it was woven - a very time consuming operation adding to the value of the garment. Warp threads which run up and down the fabric would be one colour, while weft threads (running across) would be the other colour.
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The edges are simply turned under and secured using overcast stitch in purple wool.
Purple (in period) comes from either dog whelks or lichen so would be very costly.
Green would be achieved by dyeing with yellow (weld) first and then dyeing again with exhausted woad (blue).
All of this makes this gown very costly!
This is the embroidery on the cuffs, one half of the design in Fig 2. The colours in mine are conjectural, but would have been available to the Anglo-Saxons in this period.
Fig 2. Two-dog border from Lindisfarne (c. 8th century) taken from the Celtic Design book 'Animal Patterns' by Aidan Meehan.
cloak hacele
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The cloak is shaped to fit the shoulders and provided with a hood.
I bought this one back in 1993. It is made of 5 parts - 2 parts for the main body of the cloak, 1 for the yolk and 2 sides to the hood. The fabric is a fluffy wool with a good nap, which means that it is more waterproof. The seams I over-stitched by hand with a wool thread. The hems are simply blanket stitched.
(I have since altered this cloak to fit my Viking Volva persona (2018).
shoes scos, stæppe-scoh
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My shoes are made in three pieces, with a sole and uppers.
These shoes were actually a pair of 'Spanish slippers' that I modified. I took out the fake sheepskin lining, made a pattern from it and replaced it with a thick wool lining. Between the lining and the sole I added insoles for a tiny bit of extra comfort, and I added a fleece insole on top. Even so I can still feel every pebble I tread on!
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Both shoes are made the same with no shaping for left and right feet. They mould to the shape of the foot, with wearing.
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The thonging around the edge is decorative on this pair, but could have been extended to make ties to hold the shoe on better.
On the left you can see how the shoe has buckled and folded in the 'arch' area where the foot is narrower than the shoe.
On the right you can see more of the shaping, the lining, the central seam and stitching.
veil and fillet scyfel, orel
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This head-covering is made from tabby slub linen in a neutral colour which has a slight yellowish hint to it.
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It is about 80cm by 40cm.
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I edged the hems with a contrasting blue linen thread.
belt gyrdels
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The belt is made from the same fabric as the gown. It is a long doubled over strip.
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I embroidered a 'tree of life' pattern on the belt which taken from a book of 'celtic' knotwork. The technique I used for this is called 'laid couching' where long threads are stitched along the shape and then shorter threads are stitched over them.
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The thread for the embroidery is also linen.
accessories
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The cloak is fastened with a centrally placed iron penannular brooch.
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The under-garment is fastened with a gold or gold-plated open-work disc brooch.
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The necklace is made from glass beads string on a leather thong. The beads are alternating pinkish glass tubes and brownish 'braceate' types.
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Also at the neck is a bone cross on a leather thong.
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Attached to a cord belt underneath the embroidered one, are some tools:
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a pair of iron mini shears in a leather case - this pair is from China,
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a wooden needle case, which would contain possibly bone, iron or copper alloy needles - mine here is a tiny button box, I had from an Aunt who gave me some ivory buttons,
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a leather pouch in the shape of a circle - mine is based on a Viking style from Hedeby. This would have held 'special' possibly 'magical' items.
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Iron knife with wooden handle in a leather sheath - which I bought from another re-enactor.
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I also used to wear a wooden comb with this costume.
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Brass wire arm ring - made by a friend.
Resources:
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Archaeological Footwear from Prehistoric Times until 1800, Olaf Goubitz, SPA uitgevers 2011
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Dress in Anglo-Saxon England, Gale R. Owen-Crocker, The Boydell Press 2004