Sir Hákon Hábrók's Viborg Inspired Tunic

When word went out that Hákon Hábrók was to be raised to the Order of Chivalry, I knew I wanted to be involved. Sir Hákon and his wife Lady Eleanor are two of my favorite people and this seemed like a good way to support them. Hák is a gifted poet, fighter and bard and his particular flavor of SCA aesthetic is one that we share. I planned three elements for his Elevation garb: a klappenrock, embroidered with my interpretation of the Mead of Poetry myth, a pair of woolen winnigas woven specifically for his tree trunk legs, and a tunic inspired by the Viborg shirt.

Initially, we had several weeks to put together the Vigil and Elevation, but as life is wont to do, it threw us a curveball when we learned that Hák and Eleanor were moving out of kingdom in a matter of weeks. As we rushed to get his Elevation executed before then, I realized I had to scale back my plans for his Elevation garb. The most important element of the items I was taking on was the tunic. A vigil tunic is an important piece of a knight's Elevation, if not quite to the level of the regalia they will receive at the Elevation itself. The tunic was what needed my attention.

Adjusting the Pattern

I wanted to chose an extant example from the Viking Age for this tunic. It was important to me that Hák's tunic was as period as I could make it while still functioning as a garment that could be worn at the nicest functions in the SCA. I wanted Hák to have a Sunday Best tunic, if you will. The Viborg shirt is one of the coolest extant finds from the Viking Age, period. It is pieced together from trapezoid and rectangular scraps using several different construction techniques. It was preserved after it was shoved in a posthole for a dock in Viborg. It was likely someone's work shirt, possibly even a thrall's shirt. It certainly wouldn't have been the shirt that was chosen by anyone to appear before a Jarl, and yet in the SCA, a Viborg shirt replica is its own sort of status symbol. Still, I could not bring myself to piece together a true replica of the Viborg shirt for Hák's Elevation. But I did use it to inspire the pattern I came up with.

Rather than piecing the torso with many small cuts, I used two large pieces, plus two more pieces for the skirting. On the original, the back piece wraps slightly more forward on the right side than the left side and I tried to replicate that for Hák's tunic as well. In hindsight, it probably caused me more headache than that detail was worth but hindsight is like that. I did the same square neckline and a similar flap closure, though I modified both for aesthetic reasons, which was a very Vinking Age Scandinavian thing to do. I also constructed the arms from a solid piece of fabric rather than two pieces for each arm, meaning the extant example has a top piece and a bottom piece for each arm. Hák's tunic has only one piece and one seam for each arm. This takes the tunic further away from the extant, but time was a consideration. I try to give myself leeway for these types of decisions, particularly when meeting a deadline. Shirts were not mass produced, so each garment would have been unique and sewn to the maker and the wearer's preferences and in this case, that meant avoiding more seams than necessary. Which again, in hindsight, suggests that the Viborg shirt might not have been the shirt to pick as my example as it is full of unnecessary seams but here we are.

Materials

For Hákon's tunic, his wife and I discussed several possibilities of fiber and color. We settled on a mid-weight linen, which was similar to the linen of the Viborg shirt, in a color that complimented Hák and which was similar to some of the blues that have been recreated by chemists at the National Museum of Denmark.

In Viking Age Scandinavia, silk was a prized fabric. The trade routes that brought it into towns like Birka and Hedeby were long and dangerous and for the Scandinavian people, silk was the ultimate status symbol. Because I wanted to keep Hák's as wearer friendly as possible (and not spend an astounding amount of money on it), I decided to use silk as a trim rather than as a foundational fiber in the tunic. For that, I chose a tie silk which I hoped would be close enough to the quality and texture of the silk the Scandinavians had access to. We often assume the silks in the past would have been rough, like Dupioni, but that largely wasn't the case. If you are interested in the silk trade in Europe and Asia during the Viking Age, I recommend Silk for the Vikings, by Marianne Vedeler.

The silk used for the trim and bindings

De 17 farver, som konservatoren og kemikeren har skabt. (Foto: Line Bregnhøi © Nationalmuseet

The Process

Once I drafted the pattern for the shirt, cutting the pieces was fairly straightforward. I sewed the pieces together using a running stitch anchored with a single backstitch every time I changed thread. The extant example contained something like eight different stitch techniques and a few different ways of finishing the seams. For my interpretation, I stuck primarily with a running stitch though I did on occasion use a blind stitch when the seam called for it, such as when in the arm gusset.

The body of the tunic was fairly straight forward. The extant example was lined but in the interest of Hák's comfort, Eleanor and I decided to not line the body of his tunic. I did, however, end up lining the collar and the front flap for two reasons:

It makes assembly easier.
It makes repairs easier.

The first part of a tunic to show wear is the collar and the armpits. Gussets make armpits easy to replace and reinforce. Lining the collar does the same thing for the collar and chest flap-bib-thing. The collar was A Challenge and deserves its own section of discussion.

The interior of one of the arm gussets

Silk Trim

For the bindings and the trim, I made bias tape from tie silk. The bias of a piece of fabric is the diagonal grain. This is usually where there is some stretch to woven fabrics, like silk. When making bias tape, the result is a piece of narrow fabric that easily stretches around curves. Making your own bias tape is fairly straight forward, but I'd never done it before. I used this video tutorial to make mine, using a roughly 2" cut, which resulted in a 1"-1/2" tape, depending on if I was binding or trimming.

The Collar

This thing. This thing came out very cool and I'm very proud of it but it gave me FITS. I wanted a square collar, like the original, and I wanted it to stand up, like a Mandarin style collar. I ultimately had to use wool to give the linen the stiffness it needed but for another tunic I made with a similar collar, I used canvas weight linen that I sewed vertical seams to help it stand up. I'm not sure it will wear as well as the wool collar I did for Hák but it will be somewhat cooler to wear. Sorry Hák. Good thing Vermont is cold? As I mentioned above, I also ended up attaching the collar in such a way that resulted in a lining for the collar and the flap/bib/thing in the front. I chose a darker color for this part, since dark shows less wear, and also as a pop of contrasting color.

As the pictures show, I also bound the collar as I constructed it. Sewing all the pieces together then going back over it again with the silk resulted in too bulky seams and attachments, so I used ALL THE PINS and did most of them at the same time.

In the extant example, the collar is tied close in a very clever way that provides warmth and protection, everything a modern Viking doesn't need. But I wanted to still have a tie closure because it would allow the neckline to be tighter to Hák's neck, as was the preference in Viking Age Scandinavia, while still allowing his head to pass through.

I wove a cord on a lucet out of silver linen yarn and tipped it with blown glass beads that approximated VA bead finds. I made little loops to pass the ties through on the shoulder, which doesn't have a period justification for but which does look nice.

Finishing the Seams

Viking Age Scandinavians loved symmetry and pretty seams. This tunic is not symmetrical, which is absolutely a modern concession. But I did finish every seam to make up for it.

For the arm seams, I used a chain stitch in the same type of linen thread I used for the lucet cord, but in a dark, contrasting blue.

For the body, I sewed bias tape along every seam, which not only looks very nice, but reinforced the seams. Silk is extremely strong and I expect the thread I sewed it with to give out before the fabric does.

The Birth of a Fancy Tunic

Once this tunic was constructed, it had to make its way out in the world. I wanted Hák to have materials for emergency repairs as well as an understanding of how I made it and why I made the choices I did regarding the changes I made to the original inspiration. At this point, I was feeling a bit loopy and that is definitely communicated in the little booklet I typed up to give to Hák with the tunic and repair supplies.

Interpretation of the Viborg shirt.docx.pdf

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