Kit Resources

These kit guides aim to describe the sort of clothes worn by typical Anglo-Saxons and Vikings in England, plus some of the artefacts they used in combat and everyday life. Those interested in reading further about clothing and textiles from the era should look over to the books page.

Overviews

• An introduction to mens kit
• An introduction to womens kit
• An introduction to religious kit
  • If you're interested in Religious Kit, you'll probably also want to read our page about playing one of Alfred's Nuns.
• Bling! Rings, brooches, torcs, pendants, strap ends...
• For more general background on clothing and textiles in our period, see Carolyn Priest Dorman's website (offsite).

Clothing and textiles

Basics & Techniques

• Cloth: what should I use?
• Making cloth: preparing fibres, spinning & weaving
• Dyeing
• Sewing stitches: see Heather Rose Jones's website about archaeological sewing.
• Embroidery
• Tablet weaving
• Nalbinding
• Lucetting

Patterns & Guides

• Tunics, kirtles, kyrtles, dresses & serkr
• Trousers, breeches, Thorsbergs, Rus pants, hose & puttees
• Peplos-gowns, suspended dresses, smokkr & hangerocks
• Cloaks, ponchos & shawls
• Socks
• Hats, hoods, caps & wimples
• Coats and kaftans
• Shoes
• Pouches
• A printable pattern for a simple cloth pouch that you can make from tunic offcuts, to hold your phone at shows.
• Bags
• See also this guide to making a dressmaker's dummy for next to nothing (offsite).

Weapons & Armour

Armour and protection

• Armour Overview
  • See also The Armour Archive (offsite).
• Helmets
• Gloves
• Shields
• Maille

Weaponry

• Typology: Which weapons are authentic
• Re-enactment blade buying
• Caring for edged weapons
• See also:
  • Pattern welding as explained by Paul Binns (offsite)
  • What did Historical Swords Weigh? From the Association of Renaissance Martial Arts (offsite)

Leather work

• Working with leather
• Shoes
• Pouches
• Scabbards
• Gloves
• Books and bookbinding
• See also: The Archaeology of York 17/16: Leather and Leatherworking in Anglo-Scandinavian and Medieval York (offsite, pdf)

Metal, Wood, Bone, Antler and Glass

• Eating/craft knife

See also:

• The Archaeology of York 17/14: Finds from Anglo-Scandinavian York. PDF from the York Archaeological Trust listing lots of amazing finds (offsite)
• Working with Bone (offsite) An article from Frojel Gotlandica
• How to make a wooden spoon, the Viking way (offsite)
• Woodworking in the Viking Age from the Viking Answer Lady (offsite)
• Alleycatscratch.com (offsite) is the home of some chaps who research movie costumes. Their Lord of the Rings section has many useful articles on topics including leatherworking, jewellery making, casting buckles… you get the picture. Obviously most of what they make will not be in period or anywhere near authentic, but a lot of the techniques they explain will be really useful for making authentic kit.

Tents

We have not made our own tents, but we recommend the following links:

• Ravensgard has a marvellous page on the surviving Viking tents (offsite)
• Ydalir Vikings provide instructions for making a Geteld tent (offsite)
• This pdf from Hurstwic explains how to make a replica of the small A-frame tent from the Oseberg ship.