[Regia-NA] The fundamental Saxon Tunic

[Steve Etheridge]

>From: Mark Patchett <patchett@sybase.com>
>>Wulfhere se Treowryhta wrote:
>>    Would anyone be so kind as to point me in the direction of a good
>>working reference to a documentable Saxon tunic/trousers.

>Hi Wulfhere,
>Have a look here -- there's an article that my wife wrote which is a good
>introduction:
>
>     http://www.regia.ca/conquest_era_clothing.htm
>

Nice article, mate - I may nick it!

A note on tunic lengths.  If you make your tunic long enough to touch the 
ground when not belted, then by belting it you can raise it to ankle length. 
  The way that you do this is by wearing the belt _underneath_ the tunic and 
then pushing the "waist" of the tunic through the belt.  This actually 
creates "pouches" in the tunic itself, in which you can store huge amounts 
of stuff.  The folds that are created in the tunic match those shown in most 
AS manuscripts.

(Incedentally, this may explain why in most AS manuscripts you don't see any 
belts and pouches - they are all coverd by the tunic - cue art-style 
argument!)

Of course, when not working in the fields, you can pull the fold out and 
create a "dress" that covers the whole of the body in cloth - as is shown in 
the occasional MS.  Thus it is an efficent way of adding an extra layer to 
the legs in cloth terms - essentially you are adding twice the distance from 
your knee to your foot to the amount that you must weave, rather than the 
amount for a whole set of trousers.

When making the arms, make the sleeves longer than you need to by the length 
of your hand plus a bit.  When you wear them, have the sleeves pushed back 
to the wrists - creating a "rucked" effect on the forearm - as shown on 
pretty much every single AS manuscript.  When cold, (or picking up hot 
cauldrons!) pull the sleeves over the hands to make simple gloves - another 
way of saving cloth and effort.

Hope that this helps

One day I'll dig the article wot I wrote out - Kim may even put it in 
Chronicle :-)

Steve

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