Icelandic costume - 19th century Peasant Shirt

The problem with wanting to own the Icelandic national dress is that it is very expensive.  Not just the jewelry, but the dress itself.  The materials are not prohibitively expensive, wool, linen and cotton, and one would of course always want to use good quality fabrics for something that should last a lifetime or more.  But one can not buy a pattern or instructions on how to make it.  One can have it made by a professional seamstress and that costs about 2.500$ excluding materials.  The other option is to take a course in sewing it, guided by a professional seamstress.  Such a course costs 1.200$ in addition to materials.  The course does not include instructions on how to do the embroidery or lacemaking that is needed.  One can use old stuff, buy new or take separate courses in each technique.

There seems to be a consensus among those who know how to make the dress that there is only one right way to make it today (although admittedly some choices are allowed) even if there were numerous variations in the olden days.  Since I am much taller than women used to be, there is no way for me to buy an older dress, I have to make it new.  But I do not agree completely with the proportions of the dress as it is made today.  Being almost a foot taller than my forbearers, I do not think that enough attention has been paid to proportion as women have gotten taller.  There are things that are always made the same length in centimeters, no matter who it is being made for.  Additionally so many things have changed in the course of the years and the practicality of modern life must in some way influence the way we make traditional national dresses.

For example, I think the waist is too high.  In the olden days women would  sometimes have the waist very high in order to have room for a pregnant belly under the skirt.  After all they were pregnant most of the time for years and years.  This is not an issue today.  I also think that the very bulky skirt should be slightly altered in the way it is sewn, to make is less bulky without radically changing the way it looks.  I would just look a bit slimmer.  And I think the corset would be improved if it was slightly lower, longer and fabric that goes under the skirt should also be longer in my opinion.  I have seen that variation in an old costume in the National museum and I think it looks much better.


In my opinion there needs to be a clear goal in the preservation of the national dress.  Naturally it is important to preserve the overall look, but even more important is the preservation of the traditional handiwork.  Even if it was most common to make the dress out of wool, including the underware, no one would really want to do that today with central heating everywhere.  So if lighter materials are allowed and synthetic dyes (something which I'm not too crazy about) why are we stuck with making the patterns so unbecoming that the younger women do not want to wear the dress?

If one takes a sewing course, the seamstress takes measurements and makes the pattern and cuts the fabric.  No patterns are handed out, so that means it is difficult to make another one and also that there is very little room for individual preferences.

I made the shirt of linen and sewed it all by hand.  Somehow it seemed like sacrilege to make a 19th century shirt on a modern sewing machine.  The shirts were originally underclothing and most commonly made of lightweight wool, although more prosperous women would have owned underclothing made of imported cotton, linen and even silk.

I couldn't find a fine linen thread in stores here and was quite shocked to be offered polyester thread to sew my precious shirt.  I ended up importing thread from Denmark.  Since the seller didn't accept credit cards, the transfer was kind of expensive for the small amount that the thread cost, so I ordered some fabric also.  It was a small quantity of printed cotton in two 18th century patterns and a lovely linen, a bit heavier than that which I used for the shirt and I thought I would use it for a petticoat.

The shirt pattern is a very simple one, basic peasant shirt that is common throughout Europe.  All the pieces are rectangles, the largest is the main piece which is both front and back with a hole cut out for the neck opening.  The shirt is slightly longer in the back, about 5 cm (2"), with slits at the sides.

I was measured by a seamstress who then cut the pattern.  I was adamant that she would cut the shirt patterns large.  I am quite tall, 5'10" and get really annoyed with small clothing.  I prefer roomy clothes and quite frankly I wanted to control the pattern to some extent and I wouldn't be able to adjust it to my liking unless I had large pieces to work with.  She obliged me and I got to make it the way I wanted.  I am very pleased with the result.

More detailed sewing instructions to follow.

Petticoat Instructions

The petticoat is really pretty.  I am almost finished with mine, except I decided to crochet the lace border rather than use the pretty linen lace that I bought.  The fabric is a very soft and lightweight finely striped light blue cotton.  I plan to use these petticoats as skirts in summer (if it ever comes).

There are two versions of the petticoat, one for Faldbúniningur and a different one for Upphlutur and Peysuföt.  I elected to do the one for Faldbúningur, but intend to sew the other type in a very nice, rather heavier, linen and use the pretty linen lace on that.

One needs about 3 meters (yards) for each petticoat and they are easy to make.  I use a size 40-42/10-12 US/12-14 UK clothing and am quite tall, but these measurements can easily be adapted to fit other sizes.

There are basically 3 pieces, front, back and the bottom flounce (I hope that's a word).  The front is not gathered but has an elastic.  The back is wide and has 4 folds, two on either side which cause it to be slightly longer in the back.  The flounce is four rectangular pieces of fabric sewn together and gathered.

These instructions are probably not detailed enough for someone who hasn't sewn before, but for most they should be enough.

Start by measuring your waist. Mine is 85 cm / 33.5".  Divide by 2 (42.5 cm / 17") and that is the width of the front at the waist.  Add to this 5 cm/ 2" (2,5 cm / 1" on either side) and that is the width of the front piece at the bottom.

Measure the length from your waist to the floor (add height of heels, if you usually wear heels). Subtract from this about 10 cm / 4" because the petticoat is longer in the back.  My length is 109 cm / 43" and I made the length of the top half 50 cm /20" and the flounce also.

The back piece is the really interesting part.  It is basically a 1/4 round.  It is wider than the waist, but gets pulled in by 4 folds which make it drape nicely in the back.  I simply drew up a circle with a radius of half my waist measurement (42,5 cm /17").  Then I measured 50 cm /20" from there, to get it to be the same length as the front piece.  The flounce is 4 pieces of 50 cm/ 20" times the width of the fabric, which should ideally be 150 cm /59".  The flounce could be slightly less gathered (i.e. 3 pieces) if the fabric is thick.  Also cut the waist bands, slightly longer than half the waist measurements and about 5 cm / 2" high (half that when finished).  Add a seam allowance to all pieces, at least 1 cm/1/4" when you cut your fabric.

Start by marking the folds in the back piece: Mark the center back and measure 4 cm /1,6" on either side and fold to the center and let the two folds meet without overlapping.  Now measure 8,5 cm / 3,3 " away from the center fold and fold 2 cm / 0,8" towards the center on both sides.  There should be 6,5 cm / 2,5" between the folds.  Stitch down.

Traditionally there are open slits in the sides, but one can sew in a zipper or add pockets to close them, but here I didn't do that.  Hem the slits and then sew the top pieces together at the sides below the slits.  Sew all flounce pieces together in a circle and then sew two gathering stitches at the top.  Start to gather te flounce to fit the top.  It's easiest to gather each of the four pieces to fit a quarter of the top so that the gathers are nice and even.  Sew the gathers to the top, right sides together.  It's also good to stitch the gathers to the top piece from the front about 2-3mm / or an 1/8" from the seam.

Sew the waistband to front and back pieces, first right sides together. On the back piece, fold the waistband over in the middle and fold in the seam and stitch in place.  On the front, cut a wide elastic to be about 10 sm / 4" smaller than the waistband and pin in place on either end.   Fold the waistband and the seam in and stitch in place.  Make one seam along the length of the waistband over the stretched eleastic to hold it in place.  Make buttonholes on either side of the waistband of the back and sew on two buttons on the front.  Or use snaps.  Finally add a lace to the bottom and hem the petticoat.

The petticoat for the Upphlutur and Peysuföt is identical to this except the front piece is all the way to the floor, so that it has a flat front, but the flounce is on the back.  Both are slightly longer in the back than they are in front because of the folds in the back piece.  I think that there is a certain charm in that, but since I'm still crocheting the bottom lace, I can't really try it on yet.  The crochet is a lesson in patinence, since the hem is 6 meters / 6 yards long and the 1850's pattern I'm using is 12 rounds.  But I'm almost there and then I'll have a lovely long summer skirt.  After all, there is a precedent for wearing ones underclothes as the national costume, so why not.