The Norwegian national costume, or bunad, is an extremely exciting part of Norwegian culture for me. In the United States, we don’t really have this sort of thing unless you are Native American and have some kind of traditional tribal dress. Norwegians wear their bunader (plural) at big events, such as Constitution Day, confirmation, and wedding celebrations, along with a handful of other occasions.

My sweet mother-in-law gifted me a bunad this summer — it is one that she made when she was in school. This remarkable gift, which usually costs upwards of $3,000 if bought new, is even more precious due to the fact that a loved one made it by hand.

Vestfold bunad, incomplete

Trying on the bunad in order to take some measurements

While there are hundreds of bunad varieties, the one she gave to me is from the Vestfold region. Here, you can see the typical look of various Vestfold bunader, both for men and women.

While the bunad she gave me was mostly complete, one element it is missing is the apron, or forkle. Alone, such a piece might cost $450, used, and up to $900, new. Now, I’m no expert on apron prices, but that seems a bit steep. As my sister-in-law once told me, everything having to do with bunad is expensive!

So, I have decided to sew the forkle myself, using the sewing machine as little as possible, per tradition.

Now, understand — sewing the national costume yourself is rare. You would think that as expensive as buying one new is, more people would sew it by hand. However, it would seem that there is a veritable monopoly on the bunad and its methods and materials. The only information online I can find about making it is the website “Sy bunad selv!” and a couple of books in the National Library (linked below with descriptions, only accessible with a Norwegian IP address). The problem with this is that every region’s bunad is different. These resources address how to make one type of bunad, but maybe don’t have the techniques needed for my particular one.

So, I’ve started on an adventure in embroidery, the likes of which I’ve never embarked upon before. As far as I can tell, there are no transfers or similar for the embroidery patterns used on the various bunader, so I’m having to make my own and, well, figure it out.

We’ll see!

National Library Resources: