SCA: 6-Strand "Hedeby Braid"

Several clothing fragments have been found at Hedeby (Haithabu, Germany; was Hedeby, Denmark in the Viking Age) - some in graves, some which had been torn up, coated with tar and used as caulking in a ship.  One of these torn remnants was fragment 14, as described by Inga Hagg in 1984, pictured here: 

Hagg, 1984

This piece measures around 30x23cm, is made of wool which has been dyed brown, and is cut straight on one side and torn off in a curve on the other side.  It is thought to be a fragment of a smokrr, or apron dress.  

There is a seam on one side of the dress where two pieces of fabric are stitched together, and on top of that seam is stitched a section of braided cord, highlighted here in blue: 

highlighting by me to show location of braid

As far as we know, based on the finds, the Norse peoples of the 10th century didn't do decorative embroidery on these female garments the way you sometimes see in the SCA; but they did embellish seams and edges with strips of contrasting fabric and braids/cords like this one.  Sometimes braids/cords were applied to seams, like in this example; sometimes they were applied to the top edge of a smokkr along with a section of contrasting fabric, as decoration and reinforcement of the edge.  

illustration by Hagg (1984), red highlighting by
Hilde Thunem to show direction of weave)

This particular braid is made up of 6 strands of thread, originally in red and yellow (3 of each). Each thread is 6-ply; the entire braid is only 1-2mm wide. 

Having several skeins of cotton yarns left over from recent crochet/weaving projects, I decided to use my leftovers to try my hand at weaving this 6-strand braid from Hedeby, to use to further ornament my apron dresses.  I found a very good tutorial video by Wyrd Kindred on YouTube, located here. 

Here is my first attempt, done in fingering weight cotton yarn, in brown and rust-brown.  It's not bad for a first try, but the colors don't go with anything in my wardrobe, which is all done in blues and greens.  So I made a second one - I didn't have any blues or greens, so I dyed some white cotton yarn blue and green for this: 

Rather than use my braid over a seam the way the Hedeby find does, I opted to use it at the top of one of my apron dresses.  Many Viking age finds of smokkr fragments show the top edge of the smokkr hemmed to the inside, and then decorated on the outside with various items, usually contrasting silk ribbon or wool fabric, sometimes along with braids and twisted cords at the top or bottom edge of the contrasting piece to both embellish the decoration and strengthen the construction of the top edge: 

illustration of various examples of ribbon/cord decoration the top edge of a smokkr, 
Hagg 1974; image borrowed from Hilde Thunem's Smokkr page

Since my Hedeby braid is done in blue and teal, I decided to affix it to my teal smokkr, which had only a 2" strip of teal silk ribbon across the top edge. I stitched it on with regular cotton sewing thread, because that's what I had on hand: 

I only braided enough to go around the front of the dress; I poked the ends through the fabric and knotted them in place on the inside in order to finish the ends.  (I hope they stay in place). 

I like the effect.  This feels more "finished" to me; and it's a step towards being more historically accurate than it was before.  I love little details like this; in my opinion it's the little things that combine together to make an outfit look HA - and look good.  

(That said, I know this teal color isn't, to my knowledge, historically accurate;  but I made this smokkr (and all my other ones) before I started my big push to bring everything closer to accurate a year ago - it's still in good condition, so I still wear it, and at least the construction and stitching, and now the top edge ornamentation, is as HA as I can make it at this time. Future projects will be begun and completed very differently, but that's for another blog post).  

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We're getting closer to the fall event season - only a few weeks away!  I'll have more soon  about clothing, accessories, furniture, and campsite stuff.