Making a tunic
Contents
Our inspiration comes from the Thorsberg tunic in Denmark, dated between 300 and 400. Its general shape can still be found in the 8th century on the example found on the Bernuthsfeld man (Germany). This tunic has the advantage of being very easy to make.
Preambles
To get started and find out more about choosing fabrics, colours and stitches, go to our Basic sewing tutorial.
1/ Pattern making
This tunic requires 4 pieces of fabric:
Front and rear panels :
These are rectangles.
- The length is simply measure 1.
- They should be just over half the width of your chest (measurement 6). The wider the tunic, the more room you'll have. Some historic models of this type of tunic are really wide. Add at least 20 cm.
- For both length and width, add a total of 2 cm to allow for seams and hems.
Sleeves:
These are trapezoids
- The short side must allow the hand to pass through. It should therefore be slightly larger than measurement 8. Add at least 4 cm.
- The long side should be wide enough to allow shoulder movement (30cm min). But this depends on the width at the elbow. The right size can be found by the following calculation:
- Height depends on arm length (measurement 4)
2/ Sewing
1. Sew right sides together on both sides of the tunic. The collar is just one unsewn width at the top. It should be large enough to allow the head to pass through and therefore slightly larger than measurement 5.
2. Sew the sleeves to the rest of the tunic.
3. Close the sleeve and sew up the side of the tunic. To allow greater freedom of movement, we recommend that you leave the bottom of the tunic free.
4. Sew the hems. For a finished look and greater strength, hems should be sewn wherever the fabric ends, i.e. at the collar, at the end of the sleeves and at the bottom of the tunic.
Examples
Wool baby tunic.
(Note that here the collar is split)
Linen tunic