How to Sew a Native American Dress

Sewing Native American clothing is a great way to learn about the culture.

Before the arrival of the Europeans, many Native American women wore dresses made of skins. Although bark was used by some Native American tribes to make shirts and skirts, and some Southwestern tribes used cotton cloth to make their clothing. Each Native American tribe had its own styles of dress or ways to ornament their dress. After the arrival of the Europeans, Native American women of different tribes, for various reasons, slowly began to adopt clothing styles made out of cloth and that were more similar to European styles.

Things You'll Need

• Dress pattern
• Paper scissors
• Buckskin leather or calico cotton cloth
• Iron
• Rotary cutter for leather or fabric scissors for fabric
• Small weights or stick pins
• Sewing machine
• Leather sewing machine needle
• Polyester or cotton thread

Instructions

1. Find and buy a Missouri River Native American dress pattern. There are a number of online retailers such as Crazy Crow Trading Post, Spirit Connection Store and The Wandering Bull who sell Missouri River Native American style dress patterns like the Plains Indian buckskin dress worn before the arrival of the Europeans or the Cherokee tear dress -- a Native American style from the 1860s and influenced by American fashions. It is now the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma's official women's dress.

2. Gather the materials and supplies needed to make the dress. If making the buckskin dress, buy a hide of buckskin leather from a local leather shop or an online retailer. Get a rotary cutter so that you can neatly cut the leather, a leather sewing machine needle and polyester thread to match the hide. If making the tear dress, choose a calico cotton fabric: either patterned or solid. Get some fabric scissors and either cotton or polyester thread.

3. Pre-wash the material before using. Wash the leather with cold water and air dry. You can then lightly stretch the leather if you wish to soften it. Machine wash, machine dry and iron the calico.

4. Prepare the pattern. Take the pattern pieces out of the package. Lay them flat on a clean surface and cut them out with paper scissors. Be sure to cut on the outermost lines that incorporate the seam allowance and not the second inner set of lines.

5. Cut out the pattern pieces with the fabric. Lay the material flat on a clean surface. Then put the pattern pieces on top. If using leather, place small weights on the pieces. If using fabric, pin the pattern pieces to the fabric. Cut out the material in the shape of the pattern pieces.

6. Sew the dress. With the wrong sides together and following the pattern instructions, sew the dress. Every time you sew a seam with the calico, press it open with an iron before moving on to the next seam. With the leather, simply trim off the extra when you are done sewing. Turn the dress inside out.

References

• Native Languages of the Americas: Native American Clothing and Regalia
• North American Indian and Indigenous People: The Cherokee Tear Dress Facts

Resources

• Crazy Crow Trading Post
• The Wandering Bull
• Spirit Connection Store