Underdresses

Underdresses
Very few textile remains of women’s
underdresses survive. Still, there is plenty of
evidence they wore long dresses under their
apron-dresses—the gold foil figures, the
valkyrie figures and the Oseberg Tapestry all
show the women wearing long dresses. The
underdresses were most likely made of linen,
which does not survive well in graves. To
make a Viking underdress, a simple t-tunic
works fine, especially for earlier period
Vikings. Take the side waste pieces, flip them
over, and add them to the skirt sides for a more
full skirt. You can also try following the
pattern directions for the location-appropriate
men’s tunics (rounded or straight sleeves, for
instance), adjusting the pattern to make a
longer, fuller-skirted garment.
The backside of a bronze tortoise brooch found
in Birka, with some of the pleated linen underdress still visible (Harte and Ponting, p. 318).
Sunnifa Gunnarsdottir (Charlotte Mayhew)
The 1000 AD Eura, Finland underdress was made of
wool. Because of the Baltic propensity to wear a lot
of bronze jewelry, enough of the dress survived for us
to know the length of it (because of the coiled bronze
wire appliquéd to the bottom of the apron), and the
length of the sleeves (because of the coiled bronze
bracelets). The Finnish reconstructors based this
cloth-conservative pattern on a Danish Iron-Age
leather tunic (Priest-Dorman, p. 60).
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Apron-Dresses
Apron-dresses are the quintessential Viking
woman’s garment; the largest surviving example
of an apron dress is the fragment from Hedeby.
The apron-dress fragment recovered at Hedeby,
dated to the 10th century. The shaded area in the
drawing represents felting on the garment, which
likely indicates a belt was worn. The darts point
towards a fitted style overdress. The cloth was a
fine tabby wool that was dyed brown The seam
was covered with a four-string braid that was
laid down over it. The dress fragment measured
approximately 23cm across, with the bottom
piece measuring almost 25cm across (Hägg,
Haithabu, p. 39 and Shelagh Lewins’ website for
translation of Hägg’s text).
Sunnifa Gunnarsdottir (Charlotte Mayhew)
The evolution of the Viking apron-dress from
peplos to fitted 10th century apron-dress found in
Birka and Hedeby (Priest-Dorman, p. 45).
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Reconstructed Eura, Finland, Dress
Apron Dress from Birka
This outfit from Eura, Finland, dates to 1000
AD (Fitzhugh & Ward, p. 111). The peplos
style overdress is made of a large rectangle
that wraps around one side of the body and is
left open on the other. This style of overdress
pre-dates the fitted style of overdress found at
Birka. The apron with coiled bronze appliqué
decorations and bracelets are uniquely Baltic.
An interpretation of the Scandinavian Hängerock
(hanging skirt), often called an apron-dress or
overdress in English, based on the 9th-10th century
finds from Birka as described by Agnes Geijer (OwenCrocker, p. 29). The overdress evolved from the
peplos style (left), but lost the flap and gained straps.
Sunnifa Gunnarsdottir (Charlotte Mayhew)
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Brooches and Straps
The oval brooches were worn slightly differently depending
on the woman’s clothing. In the Eura, Finland, find, the
brooches are worn up by the shoulder and they have no straps;
they are pinned directly to each side of the folded-over peplos
style dress. In the Birka finds, however, the majority of the
overdresses had thin straps attached to the back and the front
of the overdresses. The brooches closed the gap between the
straps. In the grave finds with pleated linen underdresses, the
brooches are often pinned through the underdress layer.
Back view of brooch showing the overdress straps (Geijer, Birka III, p. 155).
Detail of the sketch of Birka Grave 824 showing the way the
brooches and the silver brocaded tablet-woven bands lay in
situ. Though the woman appears to have been buried with a
ship, there were few other grave goods near (Arbman, p. 296).
Sketch of brooch configuration of Birka Grave 824, showing
the silver brocaded tablet-woven bands attached under the
brooches. It appears that the bands were decorating the edge
of a piece of clothing, perhaps a cloak tied at the throat with
more tablet-weaving? (Geijer, Birka III p. 149).
Sunnifa Gunnarsdottir (Charlotte Mayhew)
Side view showing detail of cloth under
and over brooches. Note how the loops
attach to the brooch on top and bottom
(Hägg, Kvinnodräkten i Birka, 128).
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The Layers of Cloth Found in a Viking Woman’s Grave at Birka #1
1. tapestry
2. silk (samitum) and fur
3. tweed [wool]
4. silk
5. oval brooch
6. lozenge twill [wool]
7. linen
8. remains of body
9. tweed [wool]
10. fur
11. tapestry
12. wood (?)
The chart made up by Inga Hägg, above, gives us great insight into just how many items of clothing
Viking women in 10th century Birka wore. Some layers might be missing. Linen does not survive well in
graves. The linen and silks survive here because of proximity to the brooch; there were most likely other
layers of that same cloth under the body that did not survive the centuries (Harte and Ponting, ed., p. 325).
Sunnifa Gunnarsdottir (Charlotte Mayhew)
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The Layers of Cloth Found in a Viking Woman’s Grave at Birka #2
1. tapestry
2. tweed [wool]
3. oval brooch
4. silk
5. lozenge twill [wool]
6. linen
7. remains of body
8. lozenge twill [wool]
9. tweed [wool]
10. wood
11. sand
According to Hägg’s description of the cloth remains, this grave contained a woman dressed in a linen
underdress, a lozenge twill wool apron-dress which was decorated with silk bands on the front side only, and
a tweed wool garment worn over the apron-dress (possibly a shawl or coat). She also had a woolen wrap
spread over the top of her body.
From this and the previous page, we can make a rough guess of the basic Birka women’s clothing layers:
1. linen underdress
2. lozenge twill wool apron-dress
3. shawl or other outer garment of wool
4. possibly a second outer garment of wool
This set of clothing items matches those seen on gold foil figures, some of the valkyrie figures, and the
Oseberg tapestry figures—which pre-date the Birka finds by 100 years or more (Harte and Ponting, p. 332).
Sunnifa Gunnarsdottir (Charlotte Mayhew)
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