Yesterday I wrote about the simple, smooth sark, but there are also other varieties. In Birka, behind the tortoise brooches, there were sometimes remains of goffered linen. Goffering is a technique which gives narrow, soft creases. The goffered linen was in tabby and was also found in connection with e.g. scissors so it should have belonged to a sark with long sleeves.

We know very little about the rest of the sarks from Birka, but from Viking settlements in Russia there are at least two other, more complete, finds of interesting sarks. Fragments of a blue sark was found in Pskov and what is most interesting with that is the gathered neckline which was well preserved. The creases are narrow and rounded, just as the goffered ones and they could well continue as such, but there is not enough preserved to say so. The folded fabric strip, which functions as the edge of the neckline and front slit, continues into narrow ribbons to be knotted. Other fragments form this sark show that it had long sleeves which were narrow at the wrist and edged with wide silk strips. It also seams to have had a strip of silk along the bottom edge, which probably means that you could see it below the smokkr.

The other interesting sark comes from xxx and here you can see that it has a more complex cut. The sleeves are cut as in the picture and there is also a waist seam with gathering of the skirt at the sides. There is a difference in the fabric below and above the waist seam. It is very possible that the sleeves of the sark from Pskov also was cut in the same way (but the drawing to the right shows another interpretation where it is cut like a simple, sark).
Together these sarks show that there were several varieties of sarks and that some of them should have been visible below the smokkr and some not.

The photo to the left is as usual taken by Iduna Pertoft Sundarp.

You can buy pattern for the sark from Pskov here: Sark and Smokkr