Sewing

Sewing is one of the great basic life skills that’s sometimes overlooked. Whether you've ripped a hole in your trousers or want to create something entirely of your own design, there's no getting around the necessity of this skill. Yet, many people nowadays don't know the rst thing about sewing.

In the Roman times, it would have been important to know how to sew. While we are fortunate now to have ready access to clothing, the Romans weren't so lucky. Any clothing they had would have been well cared for and repaired when needed to ensure it lasted. The Romans, on average, were time-rich and resource-poor (much the opposite of us today), so would have understood the importance of caring for their garments.

Hand warmers and draft excluders

The rst objects the participants made were hand warmers and draft excluders. Part of the project was to create an understanding of how materials can be reused and repurposed. As such, the participants were asked to bring in old clothing that could be reused to create hand warmers and draft excluders.

By cutting, reshaping and stitching the old garments into something functional, they were not just learning new skills and ways of working, but also creating objects that can be used to bene t their lives at home.

Roman tunic

When thinking of the average Roman, many people may have a similar image in their mind: someone walking around the lovely, sunny climate of the Mediterranean wearing a tunic or toga. While this might have been true for the warmer areas of the world, in the far North, where the Iron Age warrior of ancient Britain lived, the Romans had to adapt to local ways of dressing just to stay warm. Fortunately, we don't need to worry about that.

In this workshop, the participants worked together to create a Roman-inspired tunic from large lengths of cloth, much in the same way that these would have been created in Roman times. They began by drawing measurements onto the fabric, following paper guides to create the right size and shape. These were then cut out and stitched together to create the basic form of the tunic, which was then altered to t neatly.

Following these steps, the participants were able to learn the basics of how they might go about creating their own clothes.