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🧵 Clothing, Textiles, Leather & Shoes

How to keep a household clothed and shod for years with no stores: dressing for our cold-wet winters, heavy mending, sewing machines, wool from sheep to yarn, linen, natural dyes, weaving, knitting, tanning, and boots and moccasins. Simple stitches, darning, tire sandals and boot-grease recipes are in the Make-Do Household guide; this guide goes further. The books are in Clothing-Leather\ (Sewing-Mending, Knitting-Hats-Gloves, Spinning-Weaving-Dyeing, Tanning-Hides, Shoes-Boots, Cold-Weather-Clothing), Homestead-Skills\Household-Make-Do, Homestead-Skills\Food-Crafts-Tools and Trapping\Hides-Tanning.

⚠️ Rules that prevent the worst outcomes

🌧️ Dressing for our cold-wet winters

Our winters are "cold-wet" — near freezing, freeze-thaw, rain, wet snow, slush and mud — the hardest weather to dress for. You need a waterproof or water-repellent, windproof outer layer over insulation, and waterproof footwear. "Cold-dry" weather (below 14 °F) is colder but easier (TC 21-3, p. 6; cold-wet vs cold-dry). On the valley floor most winter nights are in the 20s–30s °F, with weeks of rain from November to March (rule of thumb).

The COLD rule (TC 21-3, p. 10; drawing; FM 21-76, p. 176):

Rule Why
C Keep clothes clean Dirt and grease clog the air spaces
O Avoid overheating Better a little cool than sweaty; shed a layer before you work
L Wear it loose and in layers Trapped air insulates; a tight outer layer crushes it (drawing)
D Keep it dry Wet clothing carries heat away far faster than dry

Wool, not cotton. Cotton underwear, T-shirts, jeans and flannel lose what little warmth they have when wet and pull heat from the body. Wool keeps you warm when wet (hunter manual, p. 77). The Army's fallback is all-wool clothing, except perhaps a windbreaker (FM 21-76, p. 176). Cover the head and neck too — their blood vessels don't narrow in the cold the way the hands' do (rule of thumb).

Feet (TC 21-3, pp. 12, 41–42): trench foot (photo) comes from days of cold, wet feet, not from freezing; in bad cases the skin dies and amputation follows.

  1. Change to dry socks at least twice a day.
  2. Dry and massage your feet.
  3. Dry leather boots whenever you can.
  4. Wear socks that aren't tight, and only one pair of cushion socks at a time.

Drying clothes (TC 21-3, p. 14; FM 21-76, p. 177):

Bedding: wet down loses much of its warmth. No bag? Sew two layers of cloth and stuff them with dry leaves, pine needles or moss (FM 21-76, p. 177). Wool blankets beat heavy cotton quilts (Household Discoveries, p. 53).

📚 Go deeper: TC 21-3 Cold-Weather Soldier's Handbook — layers, feet, drying clothes, cold injuries; FM 21-76 — cold-weather clothing and improvised gear.

🪡 Mending and hand sewing

Hand-sewing basics (TM 4-42.21, pp. 17–22):

Mend early (ABCs of Mending, pp. 5–6): overcast fraying seams, tape-stay pocket corners, rework raveled buttonholes with buttonhole stitch (drawing), and sew buttons on with a thread "shank" so the cloth isn't strained.

Canvas, packs, tarps and leather (TM 4-42.21, pp. 71–74):

The lockstitch with a saddler's sewing awl — the same stitch a machine makes (TM 4-42.21, p. 79; threading the awl; the finished stitch; Lockstitch):

  1. Thread the awl, leaving ½ inch out of the needle. Pull out enough thread to reach the end of the seam.
  2. Push the needle through; pull all that slack through to the underside; hold it and withdraw the needle.
  3. Push the needle in a stitch-length away and pull it halfway back, forming a loop underneath.
  4. Pass the slack thread through the loop. Pull the needle out, then pull handle and thread equally hard to lock the stitch in the middle of the cloth. Repeat.

Four drawings of hands sewing a lockstitch with a saddler's sewing awl: pulling out slack, pushing the needle through, passing the slack through the loop, and pulling the stitch tight Pull out slack; push the needle through; pass the slack through the loop underneath; pull handle and thread equally to lock the stitch (TM 4-42.21, p. 80).

Waxed thread for leather (The Saddler, p. 15; Hasluck, p. 36): twist 3–6 strands of flax (linen) thread. Taper each end first by untwisting it on your thigh and pulling it apart. Saddler's wax works best near 75 °F; cold wax is brittle. For shoes use waxed flax, never cotton — it is stronger, and the wax seals the stitch holes (FB1183, p. 9).

📚 Go deeper: TM 4-42.21 General Fabric Repair — every hand stitch, four darns, patches, canvas and webbing; USDA ABCs of Mending — darns and patches for every fabric. Pictures: Backstitch.

✂️ Fibers, first garments and sewing machines

Tell the fiber before you trust a salvaged garment (Turner, p. 95):

Burn a few threads Fiber
Burns fast, little ash, no smell Cotton
Burns slowly, black ball of ash, smells like burning feathers Wool
Melts and drips into a hard bead Synthetic — keep it away from fire (rule of thumb)

Boiling a sample in weak lye (in an enamel pot) destroys wool but leaves cotton — so never wash wool with lye or chlorine bleach (rule of thumb).

A first garment with no pattern (Turner, pp. 122–123): a kimono nightgown takes cloth twice the shoulder-to-floor length, plus a hem. Fold it crosswise, lay the drafted pattern on the fold, and cut the neck with the garment on the wearer. Its long straight seams (French or felled) are good machine practice. To remake old clothes, rip, wash and press first, and check the cloth is worth the work (Make-overs from Coats and Suits, p. 4).

Lice live in seams: hang infested clothes in the cold, then beat and brush them. This does not kill the eggs (FM 21-76, p. 177).

Rescuing a gummed-up treadle or electric machine (USDA FB1944, pp. 4–12; two views of the machine; Sewing machine):

  1. Pick out the oil holes. Run the machine while squirting kerosene or cleaning fluid into every hole and bearing, then oil each one freely. Never oil the tension discs. Never use gasoline indoors.
  2. A stuck screw: soak it with cleaning fluid. "Left is loose, right is tight" (p. 5).
  3. Replace a dirty wool wad in a long-bobbin oil well with raw wool (p. 8).
  4. Then one drop per hole after each day's work, and now and then when idle (p. 10).
  5. Skipped stitches: usually a needle of the wrong length or set wrong — the short groove faces the shuttle point. Sharpen a dull needle on a fine emery stone; scratch marks on the machine to record the needle length (pp. 11–12).

Many electric heads from about 1900–1960 fit a treadle cabinet, run by a 3/16-inch leather round belt if the hand wheel has a belt groove. Stock spare needles, bobbins and belts now (rule of thumb).

📚 Go deeper: Turner Sewing and Textiles — seams, measuring and simple garments; USDA FB1944 — cleaning and adjusting machines.

🐑 Wool: from sheep to yarn

Shearing (Raising Healthy Sheep, pp. 81–82; handling the fleece; Sheep shearing): once a year when spring warms. If cold, wet weather follows, house the sheep 10–14 days or leave some wool on. Shear white sheep first, keep colored wool apart, and never throw hay over sheep's backs — it ruins the fleece. Here, shear in late April–May as the rains ease (rule of thumb).

Washing without felting:

Carding and combing (CSU, p. 17; Hooper, p. 43): carding (hand cards) gives soft, fuzzy yarn; combing gives smooth yarn. Spread wool on one hand card, draw the other across it a few times, and roll the fibers off into a soft roll. No cards? A metal dog comb, or your fingers.

Make a drop spindle (CSU, p. 16; spinning with distaff and spindle):

  1. Sand a 12-inch, ½-inch dowel to a point at one end. Cut a ⅛-inch notch 1 inch from the blunt end as a hook.
  2. Glue a 2–3-inch wooden disk (the whorl) 1½ inches from the point. Spin it like a top; if it wobbles, re-center the whorl.

A homemade drop spindle: a 12-inch dowel sanded to a point, a hook notch 1 inch from the blunt end, a wooden whorl 1 1/2 inches from the point, and a yarn leader wound on and hitched at the hook The spindle from the steps above, with the yarn leader tied on, wound round and hitched at the hook (a diagram drawn for this guide).

Spin and finish (CSU, pp. 18–19):

  1. Tie on an 18-inch leader of yarn. Twist the spindle and draw the fibers out as the twist runs up. Too much twist makes drafting hard; too little and the yarn falls apart.
  2. Wind a skein around a chair back and tie it in 4 places. Soak it 20 minutes and hang it to dry with a weight. A balanced skein hangs straight.

Angora rabbits give wool from a hutch: shear every 10–12 weeks, leave ½ inch of wool in winter, and keep newly shorn rabbits warm (USDA Handbook 309, p. 61).

📚 Go deeper: CSU 4-H Spinning — spindle, washing, carding, skeins; Hooper Hand-loom Weaving — carding, distaff and spindle.

🌾 Linen, nettle and native fibers

Fiber flax (USDA FB669; the plant):

  1. Climate: moderately cool, damp weather while growing and a dry spell at harvest. Heat and drought make it ripen early and short (p. 7). Here, sow very early on moisture-holding soil, or irrigate (rule of thumb).
  2. Sow thickly — about 6 pecks an acre — so stalks grow tall and unbranched (p. 11).
  3. Pull, don't cut, when the stalks yellow and the lower leaves drop (p. 12).
  4. Ret to rot the gum that holds fiber to stalk: spread it on grass 2–8 weeks, turning once (dew retting), or weight bundles under soft water 6–15 days and watch closely — "a few hours' delay often causes loss" (pp. 16–17).
  5. Dry the straw, break it (a flax brake), then scutch (beat) out the woody bits (Hooper, p. 37).

Native fibers:

📚 Go deeper: USDA FB669 Fiber Flax — growing, retting, breaking and scutching; Chesnut (1902) — native fiber and soap plants of our region.

🎨 Natural dyes with safe mordants

Mordant with alum (USDA, p. 10): for each pound of dry wool, dissolve 4 oz alum and 1 oz cream of tartar in 4–4½ gallons of soft water. Bring it slowly to the boil, simmer 1 hour, and leave it overnight. The Navajo used raw alum, or water from burned green juniper needles (Navajo Native Dyes, p. 19). Skip the "chrome" mordant on the same USDA page — it causes cancer (see the last section).

Color Plant How
Dull greenish yellow Oregon grape roots, stems and leaves With raw alum (Navajo, p. 39; USDA, p. 24)
Soft brown Alder bark peeled in fall No mordant needed (Navajo, p. 23; Worst, p. 207)
Black Tannin (oak or tanoak bark, sumac) plus "iron liquor" Steep iron filings in vinegar for days; mop it onto tanned leather (FB1334, pp. 19–20)

📚 Go deeper: Navajo Native Dyes — plant dyes with only alum or juniper ash; USDA Home Dyeing with Natural Dyes — mordanting and dye recipes. Pictures: Mordant; Natural dye.

🧶 Weaving and knitting

The simplest loom (Hooper, pp. 60–61): the one part every loom needs is the cross in the warp (securing the crosses) — alternate threads cross between two rods so they can't tangle. A board with the warp wound around it and two rods holding the cross is a working loom. For 10-yard warps, build a warping board (drawing) at least 6 ft × 1 ft with smooth hardwood pegs 1 inch thick, and tie cords through both crosses before taking the warp off, or it "will be irretrievably spoiled" (pp. 64–68). The next step up is the foot-power loom (Worst, p. 11; parts named). Picture: Warp and weft.

The cross in a warp: a side view of alternate threads crossing between two rods, a top view of the rods holding alternate threads apart, and cords tied through the cross The cross keeps alternate threads in order; cords tied through it before the warp comes off keep it from tangling (a diagram drawn for this guide).

Knitting habits from the WWI sock drives (Nicoll, pp. 25–26):

Socks, hats and mittens (Nicoll):

📚 Go deeper: Nicoll Knitting and Sewing — seventy patterns for socks, caps and mittens; Dillmont Encyclopedia of Needlework — stocking proportions and every stitch.

🦌 Tanning hides

Hold a hide until you can work it (USDA FB1334, p. 8): salt it with 1 lb of salt per lb of hide; it keeps 3–5 months. Never let it freeze or heat. Work in wooden barrels, never iron (tools). Lime takes off the hair in 6–16 days (unhairing); a gallon of vinegar removes the lime (pp. 10–14).

A man pushing the loosened hair off a limed hide laid over a sloping wooden tanner's beam, using a two-handled fleshing knife Unhairing on a tanner's beam: push the loosened hair off with the dull edge of a two-handled fleshing knife (USDA FB1334, p. 11).

Bark tanning — sole and harness leather (pp. 14–16):

  1. Per hide, steep 30–40 lb of oak or hemlock bark, ground no coarser than corn, in 20 gallons of boiling water. Use rain water, and keep it away from iron.
  2. Strengthen the liquor every 5 days; then bury the hide in wet bark for 6 weeks, and again for about 2 months.
  3. It is done when a cut edge shows no white streak. Sole leather needs 2 months more.
  4. Finish with dubbin (equal parts tallow and neatsfoot or cod oil), slicking (drawing) and staking (drawing).

A man working a sheet of drying leather back and forth over the dull blade of an upright stake to soften it Staking: while the leather dries, work it back and forth in every direction over a dull-edged stake to soften it (USDA FB1334, p. 21).

Local bark: tanoak bark "has high tannin content" and was once used widely to cure leather (USDA NRCS, p. 2); Oregon white and black oak bark also work. Sudden oak death kills tanoak and is under quarantine in Curry County, next door: don't haul tanoak bark, wood or leaves out of infested areas (rule of thumb).

Brain-tanned buckskin (Farnham, pp. 73–74, 142–147; Brain tanning):

  1. Soak the skin in water, or water with wood ashes, until the hair and the grain (outer skin) slip.
  2. Flesh it on a beam (a fleshed hide), then scrape off hair and grain.
  3. Boil the brains about an hour in a gallon of water; cool until you can hold your hand in it. Work the skin in it and wring it out.
  4. Pull and stretch it without stopping until it is dry. Repeat if it is still stiff.
  5. Smoke it over a cool smudge of punky hardwood inside a little tepee of sticks. Unsmoked buckskin dries hard every time it gets wet.

Soap or lard can replace brains. Wear gloves with brains — the prions of chronic wasting disease concentrate in brain and spinal cord; use soap or egg yolk if in doubt (rule of thumb).

Furs: salt-alum (FB1334, p. 27):

  1. Dissolve 1 lb alum in 1 gallon of water. Dissolve 4 oz washing soda and 8 oz salt in ½ gallon of water, and pour it in very slowly.
  2. Thicken with flour to a paste; spread 2–3 coats on the flesh side, a day apart.
  3. Rinse, oil, and work the skin over a stake as it dries. If it dries stiff, dampen it and work it again.

Rawhide (AFH 10-644, p. 257): flesh the hide, cover the hair side with wet hardwood ashes, roll it up for several days, and scrape off the hair. Wash it, stretch it in a frame and dry it slowly in the shade. Soak to soften.

📚 Go deeper: USDA FB1334 Home Tanning — bark, alum and fur tanning (skip its chrome and acid recipes); Farnham Furs and Skins — buckskin, robes, caps and mittens (skip its poisons).

👢 Boots, shoes and moccasins

Boot care (USDA FB1183, pp. 9–12):

A home repair kit (FB1183, p. 9): last holder, 3–4 iron lasts, hammer, pincers, knives, rasp, awls, sole and heel nails, flax thread, bristles and wax.

Half-soling sewn shoes (Leno, p. 131; Bower, p. 29):

  1. Wet the new leather.
  2. Take off the old sole without cutting the welt.
  3. Carry the new sole well back into the waist (the narrow middle).
  4. Cut a channel deep enough to bury the stitches, and sew with stout, well-waxed thread.

Pegged soles: one well-driven row of pegs usually holds; two rows make a stiff, tiring sole (Leno, p. 109). Fit: measure the foot's length seated, then trace it on paper standing — it lengthens under load, and the difference sets the allowance (p. 45; measuring diagram). Leno also covers pumps (turnshoes) and leggings.

Moccasins in a wet climate (Farnham, pp. 260–266): frontier moccasins were one piece of buckskin stuffed with deer hair or dry leaves. In wet weather wearing them was "a decent way of going barefooted," because the leather is spongy. Improve them:

A child's moccasins can be cut from an old leather handbag (MP614, p. 9). Here, keep moccasins for indoors and the dry season, and save real boots for winter mud (rule of thumb).

📚 Go deeper: Leno Boot and Shoemaking — lasts, uppers, welted and pegged boots, mending; Bower Practical Shoe Repairing — soles and heels; USDA FB1183 — care of shoes and harness.

🧯 If this goes wrong

Problem Likely cause and fix
Wool sweater shrank and felted Washed hot, rubbed, or rinsed at another temperature — wash lukewarm, rinse the same (USDA, p. 9). Felt can't be undone; cut it into mittens or slippers (rule of thumb) (MP614, p. 8)
Machine skips stitches Needle wrong length or set backward (FB1944, p. 11)
Buckskin went hard after rain It wasn't smoked — re-soften and smoke it (Farnham, p. 74)
Alum-tanned fur dried stiff Common — dampen it and work it over a stake again (FB1334, p. 27)
White streak in the middle of bark-tanned leather Not finished — more time in stronger liquor (FB1334, p. 15)

📚 Go deeper: USDA FB1334 — tanning troubles; Farnham, p. 74 — re-softening and smoking buckskin; USDA FB1944, p. 11 — needle and stitch troubles.

⚠️ Old advice in the library to ignore

📚 Go deeper: ATSDR Chromium and ATSDR Arsenic — what these poisons do and where they hide.

🖼️ Pictures & diagrams

Look before you try it. 🖼️ = drawings in the books on this drive; 📷 = photos in the offline Wikipedia.

Dressing for cold-wet weather

Hand sewing and heavy mending

Wool, linen and native fibers

Dyes, weaving and knitting

Tanning

Shoes, boots and moccasins

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