Buckskin pants

Although I made my first buckskin clothes several years ago and I had imagined myself wearing them all the time, that never happened mainly because they were difficult to get in and out of. And that happened because I had only a limited number of hides to play with and I couldn't do the best tailoring job. That was especially the case with my leggings, which were very tight and uncomfortable. And that's not to mention that a loin cloth and leggings would probably raise a few eyebrows in town.

But I decided to change all that and my first project was, of course, pants.

Buckskin pants

Making those pants was by far the most difficult and lengthy buckskin project I've ever had to do. It took me a solid week to put everything together, mainly because of all the seams that needed to be stitched. I definitely understand why indigenous populations generally made clothes as simple as possible. After all, if it's socially acceptable for you to walk around in leggings and a loin cloth, which are very easy to make, why would you bother with more sophisticated clothing?

I didn't have a pattern for making those pants and I certainly didn't want to buy one. The advice I got was to undo an old pair of pants at the seams and use that as a pattern. I was very resistant to do so and I almost tried to wing it and pin the hides around my body, figuring things as I went. Silly me.

Considering that I was going to use the two most beautiful hides I had ever tanned I decided to play it safe and take an old pair apart. Boy am I glad I did that!





If you're thinking of making yourself some pants I strongly encourage you to do the same. Find an old pair of pants that fits you well and loosely. Go to the thrift store and buy one if you have to. You won't regret it. You'll see that the pattern for each piece is far from being straightforward.

Considering that it's so important to have a uniquely tailored item I won't do a complete how-to in this post. Instead, I'll highlight some features and share some of the things I've learned. I hope it will be helpful to you and save you some trouble.

First and foremost I learned that it's important to have the right hides on hand and that, therefore, I need a large amount of tanned hides so that I can match them in size, thickness, and color. Note that the front and back of my pants are not of the same color but those are the only two hides I had that were adequate for the job (of course I can always redye them; see how to dye buckskin with black walnut hulls) .

For pants you want two very large hides, one for the front and one for the back, but you don't want them to be very thick or you'll be walking around as if you were wearing some heavy armor (which you would be). Each hide has to be wide enough so that you can wrap it around your waist and long enough so that it goes at least from the bottom of your rib cage to the bottom of your feet.

Even after you get your pattern, always always keep as much length as you can, as several things could surprise you: you may have to hem the top and the bottom, decide you want a higher waist, and, of course, stitches pulled tight always scrunch up the hide a little.

Inside seam scrunched up with tight stitches

What applies to length doesn't apply to width, however. I was so scared to cut things too small that I cut my pants way too large and when I realized that I had to undo everything, recut them to the proper width, and redo everything. Not fun. So line up your pattern the way you want it, in a way that will give you plenty of length at the top and bottom, but cut your width to the exact pattern plus 1/4 inch on each side for the seams.

The crotch: where all the pieces meet

It's very important to start sewing from the most crucial area and then move away from there. For pants, it is doubtlessly the crotch. If things don't happen to quite line up at the bottom of the legs that's not a huge deal. But you definitely want things to be just right at the crotch.

I started sewing from the bottom of the fly area, which is just a couple of inches above the point where all the pieces meet, and then went up the seat area. Stop sewing at the point where you think the waist band will be but don't cut anything yet. Just tie your sewing thong loosely and come back to it when all the other seams are sewn up and you can try on the pants to see how everything actually sits on your hips. Then go back to the crotch area and sew down the inside of each pant leg.

The crotch is also an important point because that's where the pieces being sewn together switch. Up from there the two front pieces are sewn together, as well as the two back pieces. Down from there it's the right front piece that's sewn to the right back piece and the left front piece that's sewn to the left back piece.




I think that it's better for the thinner parts of the hide to be in the crotch area and leave the thicker parts for the legs. You don't want a huge wad of thick hides in that sensitive area. Similarly, all my seams at this point have a welt and you don't want thick stiff welts in the seat of your pants.

Doing all this so far is already a huge amount of work, with all the holes that need to be punched and all the stitches. Adding the final details and finishing touches can still take a lot of time though.




The first thing I'll cover is a functional fly.

When you cut your pattern, the only thing you want to keep wide is the fly area because that's where you'll need the two sides to overlap a little.

In this picture you see the left side of the pants overlap the right side and you also see the stitching from adding the buttoning piece below the flap, which is shown in the picture below.

























Here's a close up of the back of the buttoning piece. Make your slits for the buttons quite a bit smaller than they need to be because they will stretch with use. So try to force the buttons in there a couple of times, increase the slit a tiny bit if need be, then force the buttons in some more.

To prevent the holes from stretching too much I added some tight stitches to the inside of each hole and I just put one long stitch in between just to reinforce the edge a little bit.

 Now for the buttons. I have made antler buttons in the past but cutting them by hand and drilling holes into them is a pain. So I was glad to find a great alternative courtesy of Steven Edholm an Tamara Wilder's wonderful book: Wet-scrape braintanned buckskin.

After playing around with different dimensions, the buttons I like the most are 2 inches long and 5/8 of an inch wide, with a 4 inch tail.

Simply roll up the wider part tightly into a little cylinder toward the tail, then punch a hole through the whole diameter. Thread the tail through the hole and pull tight. Pretty cool, huh?

Buckskin buttons

Then overlap the two sides of the fly area and use a pencil through the button holes to mark where each button should be. Punch two holes for each button, thread the button tails through them, pull them tight, and tie them in place.

Buttoned up fly with the lifted flap that covers it all

To prevent button holes from holding too much weight and thus stretch too much it's better to have a belt or drawstring to keep the pants up. I opted for a belt.

I took a length of buckskin two inches wide and plenty long, folded it in half lengthwise, and stitched the halves together with a simple running stitch. I tried it on and tapered the belt where I could tie the ends together easily so that my knot wouldn't have to be too bulky.

Buckskin belt

To hold the belt in place I made eight belt loops and sewed them in the same way as on traditional pants but I made sure that the knots from my sewing thongs were on the inside of the loops and not on the inside of the pants. It's definitely more difficult to do because the loops are pretty tight but it's better not to have knots rubbing your skin raw on the inside.

Belt through the loops and top hem

On the picture above also note the hem at the top of the pants. If you don't want your waistband to stretch you definitely need to hem it. After you've tried your pants on, you're satisfied with the length, and where they sit on your hips, cut the top of the hide to its proper length with an additional 1/4 inch so that you can fold that 1/4 inch over and stitch it to reinforce it (you should put your belt loops on after this step really).

You can use a simple running stitch to do this but I decided to do a little fancier stitch. It's called the French Twist and is easy to do though it uses a lot more thong, which needs to be four times longer than what you want to sew.

Punch your holes along the edge as you normally would. Then pull your thong through hole 1 from the inside of the pants to the outside; then go into hole 2. Instead of keeping on moving forward, thread the thong back up through hole 1 and then go into hole 3. Then back up the previous hole and into the next empty hole (which is two holes from where you came out). Repeat so that you essentially move two holes up on the outside and back one on the inside. Make sure you always come out on the same side of the previous stitch so that it looks like a twisted thread on the outside. On the inside it should look like a continuous line of stitches.

And now onto pockets. There are mainly two kinds of pockets. Outside pockets, like the back pockets on jeans, and inside pockets, like most front pockets.

Outside pockets are easier to make and don't require that you cut out a piece from your pants, but they do require a thicker piece of hide because they will see more wear and tear, as well as more visible stitches.

Inside pockets are somewhat more difficult to make and require you to make a significant cut in your pants but the visible stitches are minimal and you can use very thin pieces of hide.

The picture to the left shows an outside pocket on the back of the pants. It's simply a squarish piece of hide that's sewn to the pants, though I added a welt so that objects inside couldn't cut the stitches. The top of the pocket is hemmed so that it doesn't stretch out of shape.

Front pocket shown from inside the pants

For the front pocket I opted for an inside pocket. I cut a squarish piece with sides about a foot long and folded it in half.

Starting from the folded side of the bottom, I stitched the pocket with a welt around the corner and about halfway up the side.

Then, I positioned the unfinished pocket on the pants turned inside out, just below the belt loops and right next to the outside leg seam with the folded side toward the fly area, and, starting from that side, punched holes at the top through the two layers of the pocket as well as the pants.

I went only halfway, then folded the pocket layer closest to the pants and kept on punching holes through the other layer and the pants. I then used a french twist stitch to tie everything together.

The pants inside out

Front pocket

Then I flipped the pocket to expose its other side and cut out the piece in the corner defined by where it was folded at the top and where the stitches stopped on the side. I cut it with a slight curve for esthetic value.

Then, I flipped the pants right-side out and felt my cut on the pocket through the pants, marking the edge with a pencil. I cut that part out, leaving about 1/4 of an inch next to the leg seam, and sewed the pocket and the pants together with a french twist again.

Then, I sewed the leftover half side to the 1/4 inch next to the seam to complete the process.

I really love my new pants: they are very soft and comfortable, yet very strong and durable!

Check out my post on making Buckskin Knickers to view more options on how to make pants!

You may also be interested in Making a Buckskin Pullover, Making a Buckskin Shirt and How to Wash Buckskin.

If you need more guidance on how to sew with buckskin, check out my new post on the subject by clicking here.

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