Military Tunic - Stitching and weave help

[Tim Edwards]

Jurjen,

Thanks. Dyeing cloth turns out to be surprisingly straightforward, provided you follow the correct process and dont take shortcuts.

We got a beautiful range of madder reds, many of which proved fast to aggressive rinseing afterwards.

I highly recommend the following supplier of dyestuffs:

http://www.fibrecrafts.com/ColourCrafts.asp

That aside, colour is a side issue for me. I want to work towards weatherproof and accurate clothing. The next workshop will focus on felting our outer layers, and putting the lanolin back into the cloth. I've got a big tub ready to go!

The Thorsbjerg tunic is a useful piece of kit, worth reconstructing. The slitted cuffs can be rolled over the hand for warmth, or back up the arm for working. This first reconstruction was a trial piece, the next one will be completely hand spun, woven and dyed, as best the evidence allows.

Although based on a single find beyond the frontier, I believe it would have been a typical clothing item for Northern Roman soldiers, as similar cuffs are visible on numeous Rhineland cavalry stelae, the Mainz Column base, the Lancaster cavalry tombstone. The Gallic Vacheres warrior sculpture even demonstrates a similar seam pattern.

We'll be testing out some of the foul weather kit in the Taunus Mountains and Brecon Beacons!

I'd be very interested to speak to anyone who has seen the archaeological collections in Copenhagen...