Indian dresses

The most famous Indian costumes come from the area of ​​the Great Plains: long, richly beaded women's dresses and great majestic plumes and their beaded and fringed shirts and leggings. For most people in the world, these costumes are a model of Indian clothing, however, in the past, the great majority of Indians had never dressed like that.
The clothes were made of soft tanned deer or elk leather. Mostly women tanned them, gathering in groups to work together: they played and gossiped.
The dresses of the Plains Indian women were most often made of soft-tanned elk skin. Sewing such a dress was not complicated. Two large skins were tails up and sewn together at the widest point, leaving an opening for the head and sides. The buttonholes were made with a bone awl, and a tendon or a thong was threaded into the holes created in this way and tied. The size of the dress depended on the selection of the appropriate ones, larger or smaller skins. No piece was cut. Protruding parts, the edge of the leather at the bottom of the dress and on the sleeves was cut in fringes. The cut was made of the natural shape of the leather, with only small changes depending on the tribe and individual taste. Usually these dresses were ankle-length. Only in later times were they made to the calves, and sometimes even to the knee. The dresses were decorated with porcupine spikes, painted pieces of leather and a lot of fringes.
Among the tribes of the Plains, the new white man culture had a great influence on decoration and the material used for sewing, but it did not affect the overall characteristics of the dresses from this region. The glass beads had replaced the porcupine's spines, although they can be found side by side for a long time. Various types of metal plates and bells were also used for decoration. Leather was also being replaced with material more and more often. Cotton threads and metal needles began to be used, and sewing machines appeared at the end of the 19th century, which some richer Indians would buy.

Today, the everyday clothing of modern Indian women is no different from that of other women in America, or Europe. Only on special occasions, e.g.. Pow-Wow put on their traditional clothes, which are more and more often made in the old style of leather.

CUTTINGS FOR DRESSES

DRESSES (OLD STYLE)

REQUIRED MATERIALS

– 2 long chamois leather (deer or elk preferably with the natural shape of the animal),
– tendons or strong sewing threads,
– additional decorations: quill, beads for making ornaments, paints to be painted,

EXECUTION

Dresses from 2 pieces of leather are quite simple to make and very natural. However, due to the fact that it is difficult to get a long chamois leather, and such, which has the natural shape of most girls (with the exception of a few old-time style lovers 🙂 I do not undertake to make such dresses.
To make such a dress, two pieces of chamois leather should be folded with the lower part of the animal together and sewn on the shoulders. You can see it exactly in the picture below. Then sew additional tabs at the bottom of the dress to cover the holes resulting from the natural shape of the skin. These tabs were semicircular or rectangular and were usually made of red-painted leather. Another thing is to make a fringe on the front and back of the dress (the method is in the picture) and fastenings on the side. For this purpose, we put the dress over the head and mark the places where it will be tied to the sides. The dress should be close to the body, but not so as to restrict movement. We make the last clasp just above the knee. Sides, We cut the bottom and sleeves of the dress into short fringes.
And we already have a ready-made dress in the so-called state., raw – i.e. without decorations. These are the dresses that Indian women wore every day. The case of making bead decorations is very individual and requires consultation with a person, who is a specialist in the handicraft of a particular tribe.

LEATHER DRESSES

REQUIRED MATERIALS

– 3 flaps of soft tanned leather (white deer or elk with the natural shapes of the animal),
– tendons or strong sewing threads,
– additional decorations: beads, bells, jingle (you can make yourself from a plate),
– paints to be painted, flannel

EXECUTION

Making the dress from 3 the parts are quite complicated but not impossible 🙂 Compared to the two-piece dress, this one looks much more impressive due to the places, especially on the sleeves, very long fringes.
First we will deal with the top part, so with a yoke. Fold the skin in half (long side) and designate a measure. then cut a hole for the head, but not too big. Then we even out the bottom of the yoke so that we can sew on the remaining pieces of leather. We can put the yoke over the head and try on the others 2 skin. We can shape them immediately and mark the places to be cut off on the side. First, sew the leather to the front yoke and back yoke. We can do it with tendons or strong threads or a leather chamois leather thong. We try on the dress again. Now we need to sew the sides. They can be cut so that both skins are butt-sewn together – then there will be no fringes on the side or leave larger sides and fasten the dress with straps every 10 cm and cut what is left on the side into fringes. The fringes should not be longer than the side 10 cm and can be cut at an acute angle to the dress so that they do not stick out too much. Then we have to properly trim the bottom of the dress so that the skin does not roam the ground. The dress should reach the ankles as much as possible. You can now shape the bottom of the dress according to the shape of your favorite tribe (the drawing at the very bottom). Now we proceed to cutting the fringe. At the bottom, no more than 10cm. On the yoke, first draw a pencil shape suitable for a specific tribe (the drawing at the very bottom). It is best to mark the place on the yoke where the wrist is with your arms outstretched and draw the shape to the side of the dress.. Anything that protrudes beyond this shape is cut on the fringes. Caution: in some places the fringes can reach more than half a meter – it has to do with it, that when cutting the fringes, the chamois stretches quite a lot. The fringes must not be too thin, because they will break off later. The optimal width of the fringe is approx. 3-5mm. It is best to buy or borrow very sharp scissors for this purpose!
After making the dress in its raw state, we can start making decorations. Most of the small ornaments are shown in the figure below. The case of making bead decorations is very individual and requires consultation with a person, who is a specialist in the handicraft of a particular tribe.

DRESSES WITH A DRESS OR FLANNEL

REQUIRED MATERIALS

– cloth – 2 the colors (can be purchased at a fabric store as wool 100% – for a dress you need 2x the height from the shoulders to the middle of the calves) flannel lub (warning: sometimes the flannel is sold 90cm wide – it is difficult to sew a dress from such!),
– cotton ribbon (you can buy a ribbon from the so-called. circles to make it easier to hemm around),
– additional decorations: cowrie shells (you can, for example. buy such coasters made of these shells in shell stores – their advantage is that they already have holes drilled through them, and the easiest way to buy these seashells is by the sea)

EXECUTION

Making dresses of this type is very easy. Of course, it's best to use a sewing machine for this! The matter of material: in the old days, Indian women made such dresses from calico – it was a material identical to our cotton. Calico can be recognized by the fact that it has an embossed pattern – i.e. one side of the fabric has a pattern, on the other hand, the material is almost white. You can convert calico by buying 100% cotton, which has an embossed pattern, however, it is less and less common to find such cotton in the store. Additionally, the patterns on the calico were very specific. Usually they were small flowers or other small patterns or various kinds of stripes. Sometimes in the attic you can dig out some old cotton dress from grandma with tiny flowers – then it can be successfully transformed into an Indian dress.
Another substitute for a dress can be uniform flannel, which, unfortunately, is also more and more difficult to get.
Most often, however, these dresses were made of cloth (very specific). Such cloth can be purchased abroad, but its price is deterrent. We can successfully replace this cloth 100% wool.
The figure below shows the pattern and the way of decorating such dresses. I think that a comment on this drawing is unnecessary. It's worth doing 2 dresses. One of cotton (perfect for hot days at the rally :), and the other of cloth (the irchy) (for cool evenings at the rally 🙂

 

CHARACTERISTIC SHAPES OF DRESSES IN INDIVIDUAL TRIBES

1. Blackfoot 2. Lakota 3. Cheyenne 4. Sossoni 5. Crow 6. Ute 7. Arapaho 8. Kiowa