Cutting Hide on the Body of the Two Hide Pre Contact Strap Dress

Cutting Hide outside is always a good idea!

Cut two pieces of hide for the front and back skirt

46" Long
22" Wide at the top
38" Wide at the bottom

Note: I had to cut out a 22"x36" skirt top and then add a 15" long piece at the bottom, overlapping 5", as my hides were too short to get the full length, (this was commonly done). The 5" overlap will be used to create a scalloped edge later.

Cut two 3" x45" Welts

Cut two 28" wedge shaped placards, 5" wide at the bottom and 1" wide at the top.

45" welt and Wedge Placard in place aligned with hem

Welt and placard pinned to back edge of skirt

Cut two additional welts 29 inches long and 5" wide at the bottom and 1" wide at the top.

Wedge Placard Folded

Wedge welt placed on top wrong side down

 Place the hides right sides together, trim any obvious edges until the two hides match up perfectly, if the sides don't line up and aren't straight, you will have bulges and puckers along the edges.

Fold back the top hide to reveal the side edges and place your long welt on the hide right side to back right side aligning with the hem.

Place you wedge Placard on top of the welt right side to back right side and align with hem trimming all pieces so the match up straight and even.


So the order would be Bottom skirt piece right side up, then long welt right side down, then wedge placard right side down.

Pin both wedge placard and welt to the back of the skirt to the top of wedge placard, placing your pins about 1/2" in and running parallel to the edge.

Be sure your edges are straight and even

This is how the wedge placard should look when pinned properly

Wedge placard apex where everything comes together

Fold the Placard Wedge over so the edges line up the length of the wedge.









Place the 29" tapered wedge welt wrong side down over the folded wedge aligning the edges, trimming all edges to match.













Fold the Top Dress skirt piece over all layers and pin wedge placard, wedge welt and skirt top together from hem to within 10" of top of skirt 1/2" inch from edge and pins running parallel to edge.

Trim all pieces to be flush and straight to each other.

Repeat procedure for the other side of dress skirt.



Notes:
I cut the hides for the skirt dress neck of the elk side up so I could take advantage of the gradual wide tapering width of the natural hide.

This gave me the advantage of the hides being thinner at the top which would be desirable since you want the weight of the heaviest part of the hide at the bottom to pull the dress straight and the lighter part above since it will be cinched at the waist, having less bulk by doing so.




This would differ from the tradition of hanging all hides neck down, but I have noted exceptions to this rule when it came to multiple piece skirts such as this one, hides were placed and cut according to what ever shape and thickness best suited the design and made best use of the materials at hand.