viking tunic

 I have finished the Viking tunic. In the end I decided to machine sew the tunic as I was worried the edges would fray and eventually unravel. As it was all very dark in colour I decided it needed some colour to brighten it up by way of a tablet woven band. I read up on the traditional Viking designs and set off to make a band, but as a novice tablet weaver I found the number of cards used and the pattern too hard and I could not create the correct tension on the band so I un warped the tablets and started again with a less ambitious pattern. This worked out much better. I had hoped to use the band to fully cover the raw edges of the tunic but found I was not able to weave a band that wide so I had to just put the band on the outside, therefore not hiding the messy seam edge on the inside of the tunic.

I was very happy in the finished piece and it has been worn out to an SCA event and kept my son very warm, it may be a little too warm for summer though.

Viking tunic

 

It is always the best feeling when you finally get to cut your weaving off.

It feels like the weaving of this Viking tunic took forever but I think that is only because the research into creating an authentic replica tunic form the viking era took such a long time and then of course the winding on and threading up of the 5 metre warp did take a while to do. BUT here we are all done and even with a nice grey band running down it. Next is the cutting out and then the sewing up. I  have been researching the traditional seams from this period but I am a little nervous about the material fraying at the edges if the seam is not done well enough.