In colder climates, it seems likely that an under-dress would be worn. In some depictions the tube dress is obviously pinned to an under-dress by a central brooch as one or other of the shoulder fastenings has fallen down the arm. This three brooch arrangement is very common in Anglian areas, particularly Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Suffolk (the central brooch usually took a different form to the paired shoulder brooches).
   In most cases the tube-dress reaches to the ground and where it is belted, there is enough fabric to be 'pouched' over. A second more decorative belt could be worn over the top. It could be that the common household items usually hung from the belt were hung from the hidden belt underneath.
   The common way of pinning the tube-dress was with matched brooches on each shoulder, but there are examples of other ways of fastening, for example asymmetrical arrangements are more common in Saxon areas with brooches found at the right shoulder and left rib. In Anglian areas brooches are found at the hip and chest or shoulder. The tube-dress might be pinned at one shoulder only and fastened to an under-dress at the centre.
   It seems that in certain areas young women and children are limited to a single brooch and preferred to use this on the left shoulder. Other instances would indicate that some women had no brooches and may have stitched their dresses or used perishable materials like bone or horn.
  Buckles have also been found in a few cases presumably on some sort of strap.

   Surviving textile fragments taken from brooch pins, where the iron has rusted away but preserved the fabric show that the tube dress was normally made of wool either in 2x2 twill or tabby (plain) weave.
   Rarer materials, such as 2x1 twill in either linen or wool (possibly imported luxury fabrics) have been found in a couple of instances.

Westgarth Gardens, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk - 20 female graves, 10 with preserved textile

Grave 7

a 2/2 twill with warp and weft threads both Z spun on a bronze small-long brooch; on the pin of this brooch was a similar 2/2 twill with warp and weft threads Z spun having a thread count of 12 per cm in the warp and 10-12 in the weft; similar fabric on the back of another small-long brooch found face down

tubular selvedge (possibly the edge of the 2/2 twill) 12-14 warps per cm from the pin of the first small-long brooch above

Grave 9

Z/Z spun 2/2 twill with 8 threads per cm in warp and weft on the pin of a bronze annular brooch

Grave 13

Z/Z spun 2/1 twill with a thread count of 9 warp/11 weft threads per cm round and on the pin of a bronze annular brooch positioned in the area of the left armpit; also found on a bronze ring and iron key at the right thigh

Grave 36

Z/Z spun twill with a thread count of 12per cm to the warp found on the back and pin of a bronze equal-armed brooch in the area of the upper centre chest; also found on another equal-armed brooch to the right; on iron keys to the far right and lower leg of skeleton; and an iron purse mount in the same area

possibly the same fabric (soft folds, variable spin 2/2 twill Z/S spun thread count 12/14 per cm) found on an iron rod attached to two silvered tagsjust to right of centre chest; and on the right-hand annular

Grave 48

Z/Z tabby coarse weave on the back of a bronze small-long brooch found at the right shoulder (possibly linen); similar fabric found on another small-long brooch in the neck area (also preserved tablet-weave)

Grave 61

Z/Z 2/2 twill 12/10 found on front and under the catch of a large bronze cruciform brooch face-dowon on the chest; a similar Z/Z fabric found on the right knob of the same brooch; also found on the back, head and pin of a bronzr cruciform brooch at the right shoulder; and on the back of another cruciform at the left shoulder; also on an iron ring at the left wrist

Literary

• Wealca (pronounced we-ulcha), relates to the verb wealcan meaning 'to roll, toss' and was evidently used of a loose garment wrapped round a woman.
• Also the compound word slop, which does not appear on its own in Old English, but compares with the Icelandic word sloppr 'a loose gown'.
• Tacitus (56-117AD) described Germanic women wearing 'trailing linen garments, striped with purple, . . . the upper part of this costume does not widen into sleeves: their arms and shoulders are therefore bare, as is the adjoining portion of the chest.'
• Ibn Fadlan, a 12th century arab travelling in the Volga region wrote of the Swedish Viking women, 'Each woman wears on either breast a box of iron, silver, copper or gold;'. These 'boxes' could well be the covex tortoise brooches found in many Viking womens graves.

• Huldremose, Denmark (1st century) - Greek peplos-type gown
• The 2nd century Column of Marcus Aurelius in Rome depicts captive German women clearly wearing cylindrical garments clasped at the shoulders by small round brooches.
• Luistari, Eura, Finland outfit (11th century) - paired shoulder brooches, central brooch, chains between, objects hung from waist, etc
• Textile remains, Birka, Sweden (10th century) - paired shoulder brooches, central brooch, chains between, objects hung from waist, etc
• Vernes, Norway (10th-12th Century) - paired shoulder brooches, central brooch, chains between, objects hung from waist, etc
• 2 sculptures of women on a funerary monument in Mainz, Germany show a sleeveless garment fastened at the shoulders with brooches.
• Woman on a sculpture from Ingelheim, Germany shows a sleeveless garment fastened on the right shoulder and at the centre.
• 'Mrs Getty', Corinium Museum, Gloucestershire