Joke of All Trades

Taking a break from sewing to FINALLY clear some projects off my woodwork table. Here's a snapshot of a WIP scabbard for my iron age Germanic sword. Such a lovely weapon deserved a lovely home! The planks were cut from single piece of walnut, which I then divided into two halves, and let warp naturally to form a sorf of pocket for the blade. Now I will chisel out the rest of the channel on the inside of both planks to form a custom fit. Then it will be glued, sanded, shaped, and finished with iron fittings. This design is based on the 2nd century find of germanic scabbard at Vimose. Stay tuned for updates later on!

One of the most interesting pieces of "Viking" cultural clothing is the smokkr, commonly called the apron dress. I recently decided to make one for my partner. While I was familiar with the look of the apron dress, I'd never seen one in depth or studied the sources. So this was an opportunity to make my own interpretation based on primary sources! Shoutout to Hilde Thunem for her compilation article, which was a huge help in chasing down the right sources. Most of this smokkr is based on Birka grave 464, which contained a fine wool dark blue smokkr with a top hem covered in a strip of silk, and linen loops sewn behind it. (Hägg, 1974). However, due to the size of the fragments, no real info on construction could be gleaned, so I looked at other finds. The Hedeby harbor find of a smokkr fragment shows a piece of the top panel, the piece of a dart, and cut edges with stitch holes that once attached to other pieces (Hägg, 1984). Based on the asymmetrical shape of the dart, ...