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Thank you so much, this is very much appreciated! Amazing!

Hello. I have a doubt... I plan to be a character that work with wool/linen (Nålbinding, Sewing dresses and maybe a bit of tablet weaving) I will be the wife of the blacksmith (as I know it was one of the richer people), so, do you think can I use broken diamond twill in greenish colors? I forgot to tell, I would be a norwegian woman. I chosen this pattern if I right remember from the Oseberg find, maybe...

Thank you ma'am for your knowledge I will definitely have to make an appointment to come back and enjoy your commentary

Ima see if I can do this with my variegated blue on thread winders… I think it’ll work!

Thanks for making these tutorials. I saw a nice book about braiding at an event at our local re-created viking village outside Upplands Väsby last year but that book is not available anymore. And it's so much easier to understand the technique seeing it in action. 🙏

Your videos are always such a delightfully broad overview. So wish I could have had those when I started out ^^ I've been active (on and off) in Living History for over 16 years now and still always love watching "Beginner's guides" because they usually always havve some information or idea that I missed or didn't even think of yet. Currently trying to get back to more Viking Age things and hearing that your society is fine with linen overgarments made me sigh in relief so much. I am going for that as well (neurodivergent with sensory issues that I didn't realize were that severe) and it makes me feel like part of a community (albeit an international one) to back up if someone asks "did they really wear linen outer garments?" To maybe stop rambling and sum it up, thank you for sharing. Hope you'll have a lovely, sensory issue free summer :)

Thank you so much! I've married a lovely Norwegian fella and he's very into his viking roots, and now my costume making past is coming handy with making viking outifts for myself and my stepdaughter. But my language skills are not yet up to reading the wonderful books and patterns here! We are off to Midgardsblot next week (on short notice) and staying the viking camp - your videos have been an absolute joy and relief. I've now got 2 days to get 2 'skifts' and 2 hanging dresses made, but feeling a lot less frantic!

I hope the video on how to make the simplest neckline comes out soon, because it stopped me x'D I cut out the hole and I wanted to put the seam allowance inside, but it turned out to be impossible, I don't know how to do it, please~ :(((

OMG thank you! The seam treatment of my whole garment is the rolled, stand up seam (the third technique in this video) for 2 reasons : I can't for the life of me sew beautifully (although I CAN sew very small stitches, about 4 per CM... But dreadfully unequal). So the rolled treatment allowing to have added strenght to the main seam AND having no seam visilble? YES PLEASE! But also, the second reason, I can' find anywhere wool thread the same color as my fabric. So again, having an option that does not show outside is a godsend!

Hello and much love from Germany! I'm just beginning to get into reenactment and after borrowing tunics and kit from others for the majority of the summer, I've been itching to finally make some clothing for myself. As a textile student I was surprised at how little resources there actually are to get started on prroject like this, since most of that information tends to be passed down from person to person or only in pieces, so I've been struggling to find a comprehensive guide for a good while now. That said: this channel is the best thing that could've ever happened to me. I love the patience and the detailed explanations, since many people assume a lot of knowledge or skill and don't explain their steps well enough to follow along as a total beginner. Not only are you compiling a full lesson on fabric types, their pros and cons and historical use FOR FREE, WITH SOURCES (!!!!), but you're also giving tips around sensory issues and using inclusive language! I'm not exaggerating when I say that some of my professors at uni should watch this as an example of how to be a better teacher. I hope everyone watching this knows how much work and dedication goes into making such extensive videos on this topic and how hard it actually is to find a resouce like this. As someone who is trying to build a kit that's as authentic (meaning based on actual findings) as possible, I especially appreciate you naming your sources and differentiating not only between time and place, but also the implied social standing when using certain types of fabric. I would love a video about reenactment and sensory issues, even if I don't personally struggle with it much I'm always glad to learn from other people's experiences and it's good to know if I want to make things for others in my group in the future. Interesting how most of the reenactment people I know (including myself haha) lean towards neurodivergence in one way or the other... I'll definitely be recommending this series to beginners and experienced reenactors alike, and I am forever thankful for the guidance and tipps, and looking forward to more videos!

Fascinating. The only braid that I learned how to do was 'trick braid ' in Spain about 50 years ago (late hippie days). Someone bought a leather bracelet made of it and we were intrigued how it could possibly be made. But finally we worked out that after tightly braiding the three strands, one end could be reversed to preserve the other end and then spread out the weave. It worked well on a paired triple braid too, as it allows the leather to lay more flat.

I have a small head, and my keyhole slit measurements brings the slit lenght right at the base of the outer circle with nothing to spare. My the circumferance of the "head hole" is 24", the with of the band I wand to use is 2", the quarter circle is 5.5 in. So holding the 5,5" in place, I find the 12" mark (half of my 24 total) and the meeting point is exactly at the base of the larger circle (outer limit if the 2" band)... I'm confused...

I FINALLY received my wool! I'm about to measure myself. I was wondering, how much of a seem allowance should I give? I read 2 inch somewhere, but it seems A LOT.

How do you fell a thicker material? My material is worsted wool, and a bit thicker than linen. Is felling a seam mandatory? what happens if I don't?

Excellent video! You mentioned heavy linen as under garment under the mail. At the moment I am making a wool outergarment. I have no mail now, but most probably will get one down the line as my character is a nobleman from Frankish aristocracy in the 8th century. Would it be bad to wear the mail over the wool tunic? I went for wool exactly as, while no padding were found, it offers more... cushion... than linen.

Thank You

How does one wash wool so it doesn’t felt?

One of the reasons I love finding old sheets to use, it’s been washed so often there’s no shrinkage with it lol!

Lovely and thorough guide as always! I really appreciate that at the same time you don't make these guides overly detailed with tips and tricks, which can deter someone new to sewing because it makes the process feel too complicated. And that you keep expanded topics in your separate deep dive videos, because then you pick the topics up and expand them in a manner that is easier to sort and find when you need the separate guide. It makes your videos great ones to recommend to friends who want to learn, as I am absolutely rubbish at explaining in a concise manner!

Fabulous deep dive. I've been sewing for like 40 years and you taught me a new trick. <3

Repair your kit folks! Things will be damaged, and you will need to fix them. Repairs aren’t hard, and are extremely historical, and ratty kit doesn’t look impressive, it looks cheap and lazy. Plus, it will come in handy to repair your non-historical clothes too, and you can even make some of your own kit, saving money, at least until you start hoarding fabric!

Had a go at my first braid by following this. My finished braid is about 3mm and i got to 20cm before my eyes gave out for the evening. Very pretty but I'll need more if I'm going to use it on dress!

Hey there 😊 Thank you so much for the interesting video! Finally found the time to watch it completely. If you don't mind, I would ask you something. My fiance gave as a present two trefoil broach replicas to me. I think it was the welsh viking wo suggested that they could be worn with an apron dress because the tortoise boraches have been occurring for only a short period of time. I would now like to use them. Since I am in no society and don't have to follow any rules, my chosen ststus would be somewhat in the mid range. Do you think I can go for the simpler colors, braid trims and wear these boraches as a mid status person? And secondly, I found some nice diamond twill fabric scraps at the market in Hedeby. They where giving these away for a donation and I thought it would be nice to use them for a colorful trim of a mid status coat like I saw one in a Scandinavian reenactment project. I personally think this might be exactly the way a person would have gotten hands on little bits of such high quality materials without necessarily being very rich. However, I honestly care about your opinion on this idea. As always your effort is very much appreciated. Have a wondeful day ❤

Thank you for this tutorial! I'm a LARPer and I really love making my own garb for events. I'm always on the lookout for ways to make my garb more authentic and hold up against wear and tear. Especially since I am so rough on my garb! 😅

Thank you for your videos! I will finally be able to sew my tunic, you have cleared up all the confusion I had on the subject. Nowhere on the internet are instructions as detailed as yours! <3

Hello lovely, how does one choose a character to depict? Thank you :)

Thanks for the video. Just one thing from a well-aged spinner/weaver: Sheep's wool is almost identical to human hair. Throughout the centuries, there is only a handful of recorded cases where humans were allergic to their own hair (had to shave their bodies off all hair on a regular basis) and therefore allergic to sheep's wool. Wool allergy is a funny "allergy"- as it seems to affects only the middle classes of 20th/21st century USA. It does not seem to affect the British, the Dutch or the Norwegians. it does not affect people in the Middle East or the Central Asia either. Billions of people throughout the centuries have had no issues wearing medium (over 30 microns) wool next to the skin on a daily basis. So, perhaps, there is no such a thing as "wool allergy" after all (there really isn't)! You can have a mild sensitivity to coarser wool. You may be allergic to bit of hay stuck in the yarn. You may overreact to the dozens of chemicals/dyes used in commercial processing. But unless you are allergic to your own (human) hair, you are NOT allergic to wool.

Wonderfully informative video! I'm really enjoying this series, with plans to make a set of kit for my partner, myself and our two daughters. Do you have any tips on sourcing fabric? I'm UK based, and trying to find best bang for buck on linen and wool. Thank you!

I have found that I can use some wool and there is some I can’t wear.

Fantastically useful resource and so helpful when trying to explain to new members why they can't have anything they want, eg hw the production limits the weave etc. thank you so much and any advice on dealing with supporting people with sensory challenges but staying acceptably authentic would be very welcome.

Exceptionally thorough information beautifully and sensitively explained. Thank you!

I love just listening to your voice. Will you block me if I admit that I made my apron dress from black linen and using an overlocker? 😂😂😂 On the plus side, it took me 3 hours and I did add my own tablet woven braid afterwards.

👍🏼

Thank you so much for this!! I'll be making my first tunic with this tutorial (after a mock up, of course).

Was a great time 😊

The folding conflict had me going the whole time. I loved it when you celebrated remembering to do it!

I would have switched the ways to do the eyelids around - so you have the spiral eyelid in the spiral cord, and the single color eyelid in the striped cord... 😅 Btw, I imagine that choosing nuances of the a color would be quite interesting - maybe even 2 × 2 nuances? Like red and pink and blue and light blue? I'm going to try it for sure

I do inches and metres too😂

Thanks for this! Looking forward to the variety of necklines video!

the first pdf link tells me the file doesn't exist? That being said, thank you SO MUCH for this! I really don't have the words for how valuable help like this is for those of us who love history and having fun, but are not well-versed in garment sewing yet ❤

Thank you for fantastic explanations and videos. really enjoying them all. Can i ask where you get your linen thread from, i am finding it really hard to find any unwaxed linen thread in anything other than small quantities