Pattern, Tradecloth Dress

Missouri River Brand Pattern

Clothing styles among Plains & Plateau Indian women have remained basically unchanged over the last 100 or 50 years, with this conservative attitude being fur-ther reflected in the rather long, straight cut dress styles as compared to today’s modern styles. Our pattern presents a very traditional style tradecloth dress that was popular among most of the Plains tribes from Texas to Canada.

Materials used range from plain wool cloth to the more elaborate “stroud cloth” with its characteristic white, sawtooth edge, and to the highly desired rainbow selvedge broadcloth that is so popular today. Many times, the upper portion of a dress made using these heavy materials is cotton lined, especially when the yoke is decorated with elk teeth, dentalium, or cowrie shells. This makes the dress more attractive as well as providing extra support for the decorations.

Our pattern will make a basic Comanche or Sioux style dress and Information is included to allow easy mod-ification to any of the following styles: Blackfoot, Crow, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Kiowa-Apache, or Plateau. Also included is information on layout & cutting, ideas on ribbon placement, tribal variations, and decorations using elk teeth, dentallum shells, or cowrie shells, along with detailed, illustrated instructions for assembly.