Viking Rus Pants

Things have been a bit quiet here this week. I was sick for a few days, and I had a whole heap of housework to catch up on so I didn't really get much sewing done. I'm still slowly working on the silk facing for the lining of my kirtle, which I hope to be finished by next week.

So today my dad told me he wanted to start making some pants tonight at our weekly sca meeting. I was originally going to just do a pattern for a basic pant like this to go with the tunic I made him before festival.

Basic pant pattern

But then I thought if he wants to really get into SCA we should choose a proper style for him. He originally wanted to be all Henry VIII with the big fancy coat, but when we flicked through The Tudor Tailor he realised that all the pants are tight hose from the knee down. For medical reasons that just won't work for him. So no fancy Tudor coat for dad.

Henrician man's ensemble from The Tudor Tailor

I haven't really done much looking at mens garb really, so I didn't know what style would enable loose fitting pants. My first thought was viking. I was sure I'd seem pictures of really poofy viking pants. So I looked up men's viking garb on pinterest and came up with these.

Rus trader ensemble

Viking pants

He seemed to like the 'rus trader' type style so we decided to go with that. (If you're like me and thinking what the hell is a rus trader? then have a look here. The viking answer lady seems pretty reliable)

So I did a google search for viking rus pants pattern and came up with this pretty awesome handout. I used the poofy pants diagram to make a pattern but adjusted it so the poofy part went right down to his mid calf.

Poofy pants pattern from here

My pattern for dad's pants. He's a big guy so no my measurements aren't obscene

I suspect I will need to add some sort of gusset in the crotch. This person just used a diamond shape cut on the bias which seems to make sense so I will probably do that.

Crotch gusset cut on the bias

So now my dad is on his way to spotlight to but some cotton drill to make his pants out of. I find it ironic that he wants to learn how to make his own garb when he won't even hem his own pants. We'll see how he goes.

And since I went to the effort of working out the pattern, I'm going to make some for my husband too. A few years ago I made him a blue linen tunic that really needs some pants to go with it, so I dug this nice linen out for him. I think it'll look nice.

Dan's blue tunic over the linen for his pants

And I'll make some wider inkle woven leg wraps so he can do this

Inkle woven band wrapped around the lower leg

And then he might get a kaftan

Viking Kaftan

And then he'll be a super spiffy viking :)