I wanted to post some pics of a new beaded plains style shirt that I'm working on. The hides are a German tanned hide and smoked. They're better than commercially tanned leather but not as good as brain tanned but it's pretty close. I made it in the old style using 2 full deer hides. The top 1/3rd of each hide is used for the two sleeves while the bottom 2/3rds of each hide makes the body of the shirt. For men's shirts the hides are positioned as if the animal is standing on it's hide legs therefore taking the natural shape of the hides and using that you have the front legs which hang below the sleeves and the hind legs hang from the bottom. Like they sometimes did, I had to create those on the bottom of the shirt and I may add them to the sleeves as well. This first picture is before I've done any cutting, just positioning the hides.
The next picture is after I've got the top portion cut off each hide for the sleeves, the neck hole has been created and the shoulder seams are sewn. The sleeves are positioned where they're going to go and the beadwork has been positioned. This gives an idea how the hides go together and how the overall shape of the shirt will look.
The next picture is after the sleeves have been sewn to the shirt. The bottom hem as been cut and the appendages have been attached to form the "legs" of the animal. The beaded shoulder strips have also been attached and sewn to the shirt
The next picture is after the beaded strips going along the sleeves have also been attached and sewn to the shirt. The bottom and the sides of the shirt has been fringed and the front and back have been tied together with thongs. Older style shirts had almost the entire sides of the shirt unsewn and open to facilitate air movement to keep the warrior cool while wearing the shirt. The sleeves have been tied together with thongs as well. Traditionally the sleeves were open as well except the sleeve might be sewn from the cuff towards the elbow a few inches. That is what I'll end up doing as my next step is to work on the sleeves and getting that finished
I will update this post as I get further along. I'm really enjoying making this shirt and I still have a ways to go before I'm finished. I've got quilled hairlocks to add as well as possibly some ermine hides and some painting.
