This costume has been inspired by the grave-goods from Grave 33 at Eriswell Saxon Cemetery, near Lakenheath, Suffolk. Unfortunately, conditions in this country mean that little or no textile remains are found associated with grave-goods, so I used other sources and references where necessary to reconstruct this outfit as acurately as possible.
   I intend to wear this outfit when I visit the West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village as a costumed interpreter.

   This undergarment is made from a decoratively woven linen. It is a tabby linen with a regular pattern of threads brought to the top and over the others both in the warp and weft. My fabric is a decorative weave as the sleeves of the Thorsbjerg tunic were a different and more decorative weave to the body. Decoartive weaves were known to the Saxons and both wool and linen variations are found preserved on metal items in graves (see the fabrics page for more details on weaves).
   The form of the garment is based on the man's tunic found at Thorsbjerg Mose, West Germany. This was a round necked garment with long sleeves slit at the wrist; roughly thigh-length with the body panels slit each side.
   I have made this dress out of 6 panels - a front and back panel, 2 sleeves and 2 underarm gussetts. Underarm gussetts were not used in the original, but I have included them for ease of movement. Each panel is hemmed by folding over a small amount twice and using a running stitch in linen thread of a matching colour. The panels are then stitched together with the same thread using an overcast stitch. (Running and overcast stitches are evidenced from later finds at Viking York and London.) Some garments had a slit neck held together by a central brooch; could the strange bead found in Grave 33 be a toggle to fasten an open neckline?
   The sleeves are held together with wrist-clasps of which there is only evidence for women wearing them. The general idea about wrist-clasps is that they were stitched to a decorative band at the cuff of the garment and held the two edges of the sleeve closed. My cuffs are made from the same fabric as the dress, a blue 2x2 twill wool (2x2 twill wool is found very often preserved on brooches.)
   The wrist clasps found in Grave 33 are of spiral wire with one formed into a hook and the other into a loop. My wrist clasps are silver wire formed into a spiral with a hook on one and a loop on the other.

   There is no evidence remaining in this country of footwear, but we can deduce from later evidence that shoes must have been flat-soled, round-toed and ankle-high.
   Literature gives us many names for different types of shoe, which helps.

• scoh - probably an ankle boot
• hemming and rifeling - raw hide shoes
• socc - a bag-like foot covering
• crinc - a thonged sandal
  

   I have chosen to use a type of lower shoe or slipper possibly called swiftlere. This is made in 3 sections - 2 sides which stitch up the back and front and the sole to which the sides are stitched. My shoes also have a lining of dark brown wool stitched in for comfort. (See the Late Saxon Shoes page for details.)
   From later centuries 'lace-tags' are found which may have finished the ends of shoe laces. My shoes have a decorative thonging around the top, but this could have been extended and used to tie the shoe to my foot if the opening was too big.

   Hair-styles come from sculptures and show hair worn loose or tied back. Plaits may have been secured with small rings which are ocassionally found at the back of the head. Hair-care seemed to be important due to the number of combs found associated with burials.
   A cap may have been worn over the hair or braids and are evidenced by finds from the Iron Age and later Viking Age.
   Veils and headscarves may also have been worn. The Huldremose headscarf was 137 cm long by 49 cm wide and had fringed ends. Sculptures also show women with unbound hair draped by a loose veil. If a loose veil or scarf was worn it would need to be secured somehow; pins and clips are ocassionally found near the skull in female graves. (See the Brooches and Pins page for details.)
   My reconstruction shows the hair tied up with a tablet-woven band - the wool is quite stretchy and so confines the hair reasonably well. Over the hair I have put a veil in naturally coloured linen with a hem stitched in blue linen thread. The veil is 134 cm long by 34 cm wide.
   The tabby-woven linen fragments found on the fronts of brooches may derive from veils.

   These annular brooches, which consist of a ring of wire or flattened metal with a pin passing over the face, are copies of a pair found in the cemetery at West Stow. They are 4.5 cm outer diameter, with the ring being 0.9 cm wide. The pin is 6.4 cm long by 0.3 cm diameter. Unfortunately the West Stow burials were not recorded in context and so we don't know what else was found with them. These brooches are not quite the same style as the brooches found with Grave 33, which were much plainer, but as I am wearing this outfit at West Stow I thought it would be nice to include pieces which came directly from there.
   The cruciform brooch is particularly popular in Anglian areas and varies from simple specimens to elaborate versions over 17 cm long. Mine is a simple one, 9.4 cm long by 4.4 cm at the widest point and very similar to the brooch found in Grave 33 (photographed at an angle). They are thought to have been worn with the square part downwards, either to fasten the 'peplos'-type dress to the undergarment or to fasten a cloak. Wearing the 'peplos'-type dress in the way I do, I find it very helpful to use the central brooch to hold up the fold that inevitably gathers at the front of my neck!

   A string of beads is a common feature of graves where other brooches are found as the beads are usually strung across the front of the body and suspended from the shoulder brooches. The central brooch could be fastened over the beads to keep them in place.
   Glass and paste are the most common type of bead, with amber next; amethyst, crystal, jet and stone are rarer. The beads found in Grave 33, I think are amber, but very discoloured by being in the soil so long.
   I have made up a simple necklace from a selection of glazed and unglazed fired clay beads.