Buckskin and Stitches

Buckskin today means any wild animal hide — deer, elk, moose, antelope — that has been tanned. It is even a color: gold. During the fur trade era and before that, among Native Americans, buckskin referred to wild hides that were brain tanned by hand. We refer to them now as "true buckskin."

Today, there are very few traditional brain tanners. These hides are very expensive, take time to acquire, and are used for historic costumes and beadwork projects. Most deer and elk hides are commercially tanned, softened and dyed during the processing. A variety of colored hides are now available. Elaine has learned where to shop and how to select hides from various tanneries and suppliers for her garments, depending on the style desired.

Since 1975, Elaine has made clothing from more than 2,000 deer, elk, moose, antelope, buffalo, African eland, and ostrich hides.

Buckstitching is a form of embroidery stitching in the flat medium of leather and on a larger scale. Buckstitching use laces cut from scrap and threaded on a stainless steel needle. A hole pattern is punched; then lacing begins.

There are a variety of buckstitching patterns and techniques. The simple running (in-out) has been used for millennia by indigenous people to form clothing. Sinew also has been used historically as thread. The more elaborate and decorative herringbone (woven) and overcast stitches are used by Elaine to highlight the yoke and edge seams of her garments.
Buckstitching appears in old west and old western movie leather garments. During the nineteen-sixties and ‘seventies, hippies popularized the stitching onto colorful suede leathers. Elaine began this type of leatherwork in 1975 and keeps it alive today. The scraps of her garments are turned into small zip bags and small purses with four-strand braided straps.  SEW BE IT.