Madylyne the Viking. Wait...what?

Yup.

It's the Battle of Ethandune, ladies and gentlemen, thrown by those wacky folks down in Bjornsborg, and it's either Saxon or Viking for the attendees - Vasilii and I have chosen Viking. A few months ago I would swear I hated the whole Viking thing in the SCA, and that I would never, ever dress Viking myself.

And yet...

It's not that I dislike the Viking stuff, it's just that it all seemed so formulaic.  I knew there were different styles and eras of Scandinavian dress, but I'd only ever seen people do one...the same one, over, and over, and over, and over. Which, you know, you can't swing a cat at an event without hitting a cotehardie, so, um, moving on.

I didn't remotely have the money to pull off an entirely new outfit from scratch just for one event, so I improvised and scrounged, and managed an entire outfit out of things I already had:

The underdress is made from a pair of "natural" color linen curtains I had hanging in my craft room.

The blue "apron dress" is made from the leftover yardage from a blue outfit Vasilii and I have been making for him (I'll show you when he's finished with it).

The gray overcoat is from a pair of Ikea's RITVA curtains I had sitting around gathering cat hair. And the pair of hoods (shown here layered and tied back from the face, which is how I'll be wearing them) are remnants from the red cotehardie I made last year, and the white is from a lightweight linen blouse I picked up from the by-the-pound thrift store clearance center for literally like 20c last year and hadn't done anything with.

The gold-colored closure is...not remotely Viking-looking, but you know what?  It's what I had.

Ditto the copper necklace with amethyst glass beads.  I can't afford turtle brooches and layers of bling.  Besides - it's perfectly period to be poor, you know?

Either of these hoods can be worn alone, but I love them layered. I've seen absolutely no evidence that anyone layered these hoods, but I've seen evidence of just about everyone else doing it throughout SCA period, so I'm taking a leap of faith on this one, because I like the way it looks, so there.  :P

The event is in two weeks, so I'm pretty pleased with myself for getting this all finished over the weekend (the under-dress has been done for two weeks, actually, I used it as a nightgown at our Fall Baronial event).

I've also gotten two more outfits cut out and halfway put together, one of which is for a friend for the Battle of Ethandune event as well.  And tomorrow night I'm draping someone for a fitted kirtle pattern.  Whew!  Busy.


I'll tell you what, though, the past few weeks of researching for this outfit, learning how to draw up the patterns, fitting myself, and then finally making these pieces this weekend have convinced me of one thing:  I don't hate Viking.  I actually kinda love the look on me.  And it didn't start with this outfit, actually.  Back in August I did a Viking A&S project for someone - that'll be its own entry though.  Show you soon.

Anyhow, in my unrealistic little brain I keep seeing myself embroidering the seams on all three layers of this outfit in the next two weeks, but I'm guessing that's not going to happen, LOL.  Mostly because I kinda still hate embroidery most of the time.

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