The Making of Female Finn Viking Dress

Female Finn Viking Dress consists of 5 parts: underdress, overdress, an apron, cloak and a headdress. Due to the fact that Finns still did weave their fabrics using warp weighted looms, while the Scandinavian neighbours began to use horizontal looms in the beginning of the Viking Age, the fabrics in Finland continued to have same very interesting details as all North in earlier period.


A piece of fabric woven in Viking Age style. It is 2/2 woollen twill, but its selvages are woven to be hollow, and are plain weave. The loomstart and loomend is woven into tablet woven band so that the warp is used as a weft of the band. The tablet woven band loomends are made into finger looped bands. Now the fabric is ready for its possible spiral ornaments.

The Underdress

The cut of the underdress is uncertain. There are only small pieces left from the underdress, and we cannot say anything fixed from its cut; only that the sleeves were overlong and narrow, tied with armrings and the neckhole was open to very down to allow easy nursing. Materials were wool or linen, maybe nettle or hemp, though there are no leftovers from those plantfiber materials in the graves. In the grave 56 in Luistari cemetery only two pieces of underdress textile has survived. They tell us that that dress had a straight neckhole, no curve. The survived textile piece under the shoulder brooch contained fabric selvage. That leads the professors to a conclusion that the neck opening was a straight one, not vertical, but diagonal. If the opening is as long as to the nipples, it is very easy to nurse a baby: open the other brooch, show your shoulder and go. That would have been a very practical cut in use.

The other survived piece in the grave 56 was inside the long armring. The big piece had no selvage; so the professors think that the sleeve were overlong. Reaching about 20 cm longer than your arm. The sleeve was narrow. Narrow but a long one.


The horizontal seam goes over the top of nipples. The armring keeps the sleeve in its place beautifully. The cuff is in halfway palm.

The Overdress

The overdress was either a square piece of woollen fabric, mostly 2/2 twill, or two rectangulars. They were turned double from the top. The two rectangulars were sometimes sewn together from one or both sides, sometimes not. The overdress had hollow selvages and tablet-woven bands woven into the loomstarts and loomends. Sometimes the leftover loomend or loomstart weft was left there, as fringes. Some square fabrics were dressed so, that the warp goes horizontally, not vertically. Into the hem and turned edge figured, colored tablet woven band were stiched. Then the double tourned edge had two tablet woven bands next to each other. One of them woven into the fabric using warp as a weft, the other made seperately and stiched into afterwards. The latter was made from very fine, thin yarn.


A=tablet woven band, B=hollow selvage, which has loomends and loomstarts as its weft.

The overdress was overhung over the body with two round brooches, between which chains were hanging from chainholders. Sometimes, if the lady was not rich, instead of the brooches the dress was overhung using two wooden or bone sticks. Some of the dresses had sewn stiches in the shoulders. These ladies were not wealthy ones.

The Apron

Unlike Scandinavian Vikings, Finn Viking always wore an apron. The apron was a rectangular piece of fabric, which was tied around the body with a long, thick seperate tablet woven belt. The apron material was wool, mostly 2/2 twill, with downgoing sentence, unlike twill normally nowadays. To weave oe sew the Viking Finn apron look down to this page.

A rich woman of 10-11th centuries had spiral decoration attached to the bottom of her apron. There were no two aprons in the graves with exatly alike spiral decorations. For example the richest grave in Luistari cemetery, dated between 1025-1050 A.D., had probably nine spiral decorations in line in the bottom of the apron (only five survived till nowadays). As a conclusion of aprons professor Lehtosalo-Hilander has said, that first a woman had a rich spiral decoration in her apron, only thatafter, when she got even richer, she got also the round brooches to her shoulder. First the bronze spiral apron, then the brooches! The poor woman had no spirals nor bronze jewellery.

The Belt

The belt was made with tablets. It could be one-colored or multi colored. Often the weft was fiber plant (Sarkki). Could thickness is to use middle-thick wool yarn (what You use when You knit wool socks for winter) and ten tablets, put a yarn through all four corners. THe belt has to go around your body twice, and then tied. To the belt they hang their knive. The loomends of the belt should always be beautifully finished. Suitable ways to do that are for example:

1. Make a group of finger looped bands
2. Make three about five centimeter-long plaits and sew them together side by side. This model is in a grave in Perniö, dated about 1200 (Appelgren-Kivalo)

So far no spiral decoration in female belts are found from graves (though some male belt loomends were greatly decorated with spirals in 10th century).


This is how to dress up a Finnish Viking Age apron. First, place the apron against your body so that it is beyond the waist. Put the belt around you once. Then turn the apron upper part down and put the belt second time around your waist. Now you should place all the equipment that hangs from the belt, like the knife. Tie the belt very tight, because it becomes loose very soon.

Headdress

A headdress in the Viking Age Finland was so-called Arch veil. A picture about it is included in my article about Finnish headdresses(In Finnish). In a grave dated to about 1200 A.D. this model seems to change to another. There is traces of a linen square veil, which has turned double into a triangel. Into the fold, in the middle of it about 20 cm course, a tablet woven band is sewn.

the cloak

In the gravefinds there are traces from cloaks. They have been rectangular, woollen 2/2 twill, with hollow selvages and tablet-woven bands in the loomstarts and loomends. There might be spiral ornaments attached into the cloak, or fans put into fingerlooped bands made into the loomends of the tablet woven bands. Rich gravefinds dated after Viking Age has large finger-looped band gratings with spiral ornaments.

Mittens

Into the dress in the graves were nålebinded mittens included. The professors are discussing the meaning of those mittens. Whether they are symbolic: to be given to the ferryman as a payment when dead, in that case added to the dress in the funeral; or really in use in a cold climate. Here in my website I write more about Finnish mittens elsewhere.

Legwear

Nålebinded socks and leather shoes were used (so far we have only one shoe gravefind from Finland). When coldest, some kind of legribs were used. They could be about 10 centimeter wide, very long (two meters, perhaps) piece of textile, which is tied around the leg and tied with garters made with tablets.

Making (Weaving details) of the fabric pieces

The selvages were hollow plain weave, into which a thick string was sometimes threaded afterwards to increase the special selvage effect. The Vikings did weave the selvages with tablets, but nowadays recreator's make that selvage using modern looms with four extra warpholders added, that makes them total of eight. Very unconfortable to work! Earlier in this page you saw how the finished hand-woven piece looks like. If you are unable to weave the pieces yourself, here is what you should do.


Roll the side (selvages) and handstich. Put a strong string inside the roll to increase a fat effect.

The loomstarts and the loomends were finished with tablet woven bands, where loomstarts and loomends were used as a weft, in groups of four.


Here you can see this band in process.

Typical to Finnish tablet woven bands (according to Seija Sarkki) which are attached to loomends was, that they formed so called brick wall- outlook. That outlook is made by placing loom yarn through only two of the four holes, the opposite ones. In the tablets in both sides are put normally one yarn from each four holes on the side that attaches the fabric. The tablet in outermost side is put four yarns in each four holes, that makes the outside line of the tablet very beautiful.



The loomends of these tablet woven bands were made into three finger-looped bands, into which pieces of spiral decoration is put to form a fan.


How to make finger-looped bands. Put the loop you have in your right hand through each of the others in turns. Spread your hands out after each change.

The degree of complexity of the fan increased during the Viking Age centuries. In the beginning of the 9th century the fan was simple, but became bigger and more complex until the end of 11th century. All apron corners had fans (at least if the woman was wealthy), but the Vikings did not bother to waste expensive spirals into places where they were not seen. So, overdress was made with hollow selvages and a attached tablet woven bands, just like an apron, but its corners were out of spiral fans.


The down corner of 11th century apron replica. Its fan has two layers in the top; not the simplest form of fan. The apron is outlined and spiral ornaments are attached to the apron, which is very typical to 10th and 11th centuries. In 9th century the apron had its only spirals as simple fans in corners,10th century added the outline spirals, and 11th century also the into-the fabric-attached spiral ornaments.


The wrong side of an apron. The stiches which attach the spiral ornaments are seen. The warp leftovers are cut after the tablet woven band is finished, not left to be fringes. According to Tyyni Vahter, the Vikings in Finland did like to build their spiral ornaments with madder red yarn made into finger-looped band. Then the yarn must have been very thin.
A bibliography list about Viking Finn costumes is located here I want to lead those who are interested about my footnotes there.