Why do I frequently use Oxford Cloth for my Svear Gowns?

© 2000 D. L. Patkus

The woman's dress, a long undertunic type gown, worn next to the body in the Viking Age was a basic garment that universally is seen within the Norse (and other pre 1000 c.e.) cultures. It is the first layer one puts on that will be seen by everyone. Commonly this dress or gown served also as a 'chemise' and it was of smooth fabric. On occasion this had a slit neckline closed with a small metal brooch featuring a disk of 1 to 3 cm in diameter. Rarer, a variation of this gown is seen to be made of finely pleated fabric.

In Birka II is a description, quoted below, of linen fragments. If you look up the examples given in Birka I and Birka III the best description is from the Early Viking Period Birka grave Bj464 - red warp and natural/white weft fabric at 15-20 threads/cm by 15-18 threads/cm that probably belonged to this chemise-undertunic-dress layer.

What common modern fabric most closely matches this description? Pinpoint Oxford Cloth. Look at a piece of colored Oxford cloth. You will see threads in one direction of one color and threads woven in the other direction in another clolor. One of these is typically a white thread. Look even closer....see the two threads bundled in each pass of the threads? This is the most common Oxford Cloth in a basket weave. If there is only one thread on each pass of the thread you are probably looking at a Pinpoint Oxford fabric. The over and under "pass of the thread" is called the weave's pick. Count the threads in a centimeter. Awful close to 15-20 threads/centimeter.

Hägg (1986, Birka II:2) on page 56:: "Aus Leinen wurde auch karierter Stoff hergestellt, der u.a. in Bändern und Besat- order Futterteilen der Frauentracht verwandt wurde (z.B. in Bj 464, 466, 739)"

My translation:: Of linen were also made/"manufactured" cross-hatched/checked/charactered-pattern Fabrics, that, among other things, [were used] as Bands and Edges or Lining sections of the Woman's-dress [articles] (for example in Bj 464, 466, 739).

• The documentation of the use of a linen Pinpoint Oxford Cloth is given above for use in the dress/gown or its decoration from appx. 800-850 c.e. fround in Birka grave number Bj464. After careful cross reference of the Birka Volumes, I can only concluded that this fabric was used to construct the entire gown garment.
• Oxford Cloth has the appearence of an available Viking Age fabric. The pastel coloration achieved by the way it is woven parallels dye results of the time period on linen.
• Oxford Cloth isn't usually found currently as a Pinpoint weave. The basket-weave structure is frequently found in fabric stores, but not documented here. Both look like very good choices from a view of ten feet and even closer.
• Oxford Cloth isn't commonly available in linen. It is usually cotton or a cotton polyester blend, often 60% cotton-40% polyester.
• Oxford Cloth is inexpensive and widely available often at discounted prices at fabric shops and outlets.

And that's why I frequently use Oxford Cloth for my Svear Gowns.

Bibliography

Geijer, Agnes (1938). Die Textilfunde aus den Gräbern. Birka: Untersuchungen und Studien II. Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akadamien, Uppsala.

Geijer, Agnes (1983). "The Textile Finds from Birka." Cloth and Clothing in Medieval Europe, ed. N.B. Harte and K.G. Ponting, pp. 80-99. Heinemann, London.

Hägg, Inga (1983). "Viking Women's Dress at Birka: A Reconstruction by Archaeological Methods." Cloth and Clothing in Medieval Europe, ed. N.B. Harte and K.G. Ponting, pp. 316-350. Heinemann, London.

Hägg, Inga (1986). "Die Tracht." Systematische Analysen der Graberfunde, ed. Greta Arwidsson, pp. 51-72. Birka: Untersuchungen und Studien II:2. Almquist & Wiksell, Stockholm.