Viking Costumes

Viking Fashions for Men and Women The clothing styles of Viking men and women depended on three things; 1. where they lived, 2. their importance in a village and 3. how rich or poor they were. The Vikings love bright colours and used natural fibres like linen and wool to make their clothing which was often brightly coloured using dyes extracted from various types of plants that grew naturally near their villages or in their vegetable garden. Bright reds and blues came from berries. Green and yellow came from vegetables, Earthen pigments, like brown and black came from ochre. Women wore an ankle-length dress made of linen. She also wore a long apron over the dress to protect it from being soiled. She also carried some household items including a knife, a pair of scissors, and keys. These were either hung from a belt or from a brooch attached to the apron about shoulder height. Viking clothes had no pockets. To complete her outerwear she covered the dress with a shawl that was also fastened with a brooch at the base of her neck. Men wore linen or woolen pants that seem to have come in different types: baggy thighs with fitted calves, narrow fitted legs. The undertunic was usually made of wool. It had long tight sleeves and was thigh length. The overtunics were cut similarly to undertunics. The grade of cloth was generally better and overtunics tended to be knee length. Also, far more decoration was placed on the overtunic. Viking outerwear could consist of a wrap-around jacket, buttoned coat, or cloak. These were made of wool, frequently fulled and lined. The lanolin in the wool and the density of the fulling, protected against rain.

Viking Crafts included leather working, wood, metal, weapons, bone carving, jewellery making, weavings and embroidery. Leather Working To make leather, first animal hides had to be treated by a tanner. The best way to preserve a hide was to tan it and the hide was hung over a pole and soaked in water and crushed oak bark which produced the tannin. Wood Working A lathe would be worked using a thong fixed to a treadle and the end of a springy pole above. As the inside was hollowed out, a small spinning top shaped piece of wood, (a core) was left holding the bowl onto the lathe to make a bowl. Iron working Steel was used for certain tools and weapons such as knives, swords and chainmail. Viking Smiths would have made a wide range of objects from simple iron keys, to iron nails, to spurs, to elaborate chests and boxes. Various types of weaving - Tablet weaving is one of the oldest European textile techniques, traceable at least to the early Iron Age. The tablets are small flat squares, usually of bone or wood, with a hole in each corner through which a warp thread is passed. Trollan weaving was used for making strong cords and rope.