Norlund 78, or D10606 Hood: part 1...First Draft

I woke up today with a project (two, actually) working through my head...one of the hoods found at the Norse settlements of Greenland.  This hood--labeled D10606--is a liripipe, Norlund type II. 

It has an extremely short cape, only a few inches wide, with the gores over the shoulder.  Unlike some examples from the main land, it does not button close to the neck.  The extant hood is 400mm tall (from hem to top seam), with a 695mm long liripipe.  The fabric, while now Bog Trash Brown (or a variant, anyways), was sewn in a vadmal which was light grey with a white weft.  The hood, like many of the ones found, rises to a "horn" in the front.  Norlund 78 is in excellent condition, with most of its original seams.


One of the first orders of business, once I decided I wanted to make this hood, was to figure out my fabric.  I found this far more difficult than I expected...first thinking of (and discarding the idea) using a beautiful light grey wool, interlined with a heavier grey wool--this was not a real option, since there is no evidence of D10606 being lined.  Following that was the option of a heavy wool in another colour (the same I used for my frock coat), or the light grey wool of an old army blanket.  Eventually, after much discussion with other artisans on Facebook, and some research into the dyes used in Herjolfsnes, I decided on the fabric below.

 

Although the majority of the fabrics at the Norse settlement were tannin dyed or natural wool (in greys, dark browns, blacks, and whites), some are believed to have been dyed with the naturally iron rich waters at the site [Woven, p. 90]--including two hoods (but not this one).  After due deliberation, I felt this was a reasonable choice, given my options.

 

With my fabric chosen, patterning could commence.  I began by working out my pattern in the usual way--finding rough versions at Marc Carlson's webpage (image below) and in Medieval Garment's Reconstructed to give me an idea of the shape,

 

Image from Marc Carlson's Norlund 78 page

I then began measuring the sole image I had of D10606, in Woven into the Earth.  This was problematic, since the image was not of a flattened garment. 

My base measurement was the overall height of the hood, since I had an accurate measurement of it from Woven (400mm, remember).  Process?  Measure the height in the image, and divide that into the height of the extant to determine my scale, which was 3.77|1.  I decided that the original measures would quite probably fit me correctly (by measuring the 16 inches from the center of my head, down; where the hem was where it belonged), and so did not have to proportion the measures even more.

Next was to measure every other portion of the image as best as I could.  In the process of this, I noted the grain line at the shoulder slit was off--meaning the gore slit actually slanted backwards (as in the image above), and was offset at the base by 21mm.  Medieval Garments does not show this in their pattern--one of the reasons the book is not a favourite of mine.  There is a slight slant towards the chin (about 15mm) from the horn of the hood, and I believe there is what is essentially a tiny liripipe sticking out the back, which was slit and had the full length one inset into it; we shall see if my theory is correct.



My note draft. © John Frey, 2014.

 

I used the bottom of the two patterns, which has the full complement of measurements.  To figure out the width at the bottom, since it was not measureable, I used the top seam measure (444mm), minus the mini-liripipe measure (now 406mm), minus the offset of the bottom front from top, assuming it were squared, (offset being 45.5mm).  This brought the total bottom hem down to 360mm (which, with the 109mm wide gore, brings us within range of the target (based on the original measurement) of 475mm over the half)--but wait! there's more!  This is not including any seam allowances!  So, add a scant 8mm (based on the turn of the hem), times two, to the width, giving a bottom hem--before the gore is inset--of 376mm.  Obviously, this is not including the exterior seam allowances (which will be the same 7-8mm)--those will be added in after drafting out the pattern.  The gore slit will be offset to the back by 7mm then slanted forward by the 21mm I measured.

 

Brain hurt after reading that?  Good--so did mine, when I was figuring it out.

 

 

The Next step is drafting a mockup, in acrylic felt (as I have it on hand, and it is of similar weight).

 

 

 

 

© John Frey, 2014. The Author of this work retains full copyright for this material. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this document for non-commercial private research or educational purposes provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.