Still the definitive guide, Secrets of Eskimo Skin Sewing is packed with clear, easy-to-understand instructions, drawings, and photographs to lead readers of any skill level through the process of turning natural or man-made furs and hides into handsome, useful garments. Author Edna Wilder, one of the world’s best-known practitioners and modernizers of traditional Eskimo skin sewing techniques, takes would-be skin sewers through the step-by-step work involved in constructing traditional items of clothing such as mukluks, parkas, and mittens. She also includes sewing instructions for belts, baby booties, a trapper-style fur cap, and toys.
Though natural fur and hides were the only ones known in traditional Eskimo lifeways, the book’s guidance is completely adaptable to modern, synthetic leathers and artificial furs. Similarly, the guidance offered in these pages on traditional Native beadwork and basket making works just as well for plastic beads and basketry materials unknown to the Alaska wilderness.