Make Clothing from Wilderness Materials

It is possible to make clothing from wilderness from materials.  The easiest clothing is from animal hide. In far northern regions, such as the northern parts of Alaska, Canada, Siberia etc the hide is simply scraped, dried and used. In warmer climates however the hide must be preserved to prevent it from rotting.

There are many ways to do this which has various outcomes.

The first I will mention is braintanning. It is the most convenient method because every animal comes with enough brains to tan its own hide. Brain tan is essentially an oil tan and the fatty matter in the brain is the oil in which the hide is tanned. After butchering the animal the brains are put in a container large enough to contain the hide. Water is added and the brains are squished and mixed into the water. The hide is soaked and stirred in this mixture for several days. It's a very pungent odor. After tanning has penetrated entirely through the hide, you check this by cutting a small piece to see if it has penetrated all the way through. If it has, then the hide is rinsed in water until it comes out clean. Next you will smoke the hide, but be careful not to cook it. Put it in a tent or other small area with the smoke blowing in and around it in a concentrated manner. This will give the hide some extra protection. Each time you wear this hide and wash it, it will become stiff when it dried. It is therefore necessary to pull the hide over the corner of a board or other fairly sharp corner or edge to soften it. If it is an article of clothing it can be worn wet until it dries and will become soft as you move around in it while it is drying.  If you wish not to use brains a vegetable lecithin can be used instead. The odor will still be pungent as lecithin, although vegetable matter,  is still very similar to brain matter.

Make clothing from wilderness materials without using brain, is a vegetable tan using oak and other similar plant matter that contains tannin. The vegetable matter is soaked to leach out the tannin into the water. It must be very concentrated so many batches may be needed to soak i. Order to acquire enough tannin. When a sufficient amount of tannin has been acquired the hide is soaked in the solution until it penetrates completely through the hide.  It may take several days. This products a very nice leather. 

You can also use alum, which is a salt tan and becomes very stiff when finished. It is more suitable for rugs. The alum is added to water and brushed onto the hide.

If you wish for the fur to be removed from your hide, while it is fresh you must soak it in wood ashes and water, which makes lye, to loosen the hair. After a couple days, when the hair easily pulls out when tugged on, it is time to scrape the hide. The hide must be laid over a smooth log or barrel etc fur side facing up and using the back edge of the large knife, not the cutting edge, scrape semi hard toward  yourself. You will be removing the fur and the top layer of skin. The part of skin you are removing will show coursness and as it is removed it will leave behind the next layer which is somewhat shiny. That is the part of the hide you will be tanning.

After you have made a sufficient amount of leather, 4 deer hides to make a shirt , 5 deer hides for pants, etc then it is time to cut a pattern.

You can buy a pattern to use over and over, or you can use an old piece of clothing laid out cutting one full inch larger than the article of clothing so that you have enough area for sewing.  You will need two sides to most pieces. Fringe is made by leaving extra material where the seems will go which is later cut into strips almost to the seem.

Needles can be made easily from bone, scrap metal or wire etc. The tenderloin area of a deer, caribou, moose, goat, sheep etc with have long strips ofmeat along the top done area. The nest can be cut out and will have a shiny sinewy layer on it. The nest can be scrapped off of this and the sinew can be washed then dried a couple days.  Then using your thumb and forefinger  You can rub it firmly and it will separate into threads. These threads can be used to sew your hides together into clothing. Thin tree roots or plant fibers can also be used for sewing as well. Antler and bone as well as sticks can be used for buttons.

You can make clothing from wilderness material as some plants are fiberous and can be used as clothing; such as large leaves, barks, reeds etc which can be crocheted, woven, or sewed to make garments. Although these are coarse and itchy to the touch.

If you have harvested a sheep or long wooled animal the wool can be cut and spun slowly feeding the wool pieces while using a twirling piece of wood. This"yarn" can then be knitted, crocheted, or woven into cloth or articles of clothing.

You can make clothing from wilderness materials from large fish, like salmon, which can be skinned and the the skins sewn into clothing.  Dried these make a very good rain jacket material. This can help protect you from the elements such as wind, rain, and dew in the summer time.

Rabbit skins fur on can be sewn together after tanning to make a very warm blanket. They make nice socks and slippers. Caribou leg skin left uncut can be used to make suitable socks by sewing just the narrow end. 

Moose hide makes excellent material for footwear such as moccasins and boots.

Many furs are good for coats. Fox, wolf, buffalo, caribou, wolverine (this fur does not collect moisture like frost and moisturefrom your breath making it a good choice for hoods, collars, ruffs.), coyote, beaver, muskrat, skunk etc make other items such as mittens and hats. 

Polar bear, grizzly and black bears make excellent bedding and rugs.