In this article, you’ll learn how to make moccasins, one step at a time
The History of Moccasins
The word moccasin just happened because one Native American tribe of North America, the Algonquins, told the white settlers there their own name for their footware.
It was picked up and used to mean all Native footwear and the name stuck.
Most moccasins were made of leather, some had hard soles while others had softer ones, dependent upon the area in which the tribes live and what it took to make their footwear serviceable to them.
The plains Indians required longer moccasins to provide for the brush that they had to run through, as did the Apache, to prevent injury from cacti and other thorny trees.
Each tribe has its own style and design, and each has as well its own culture and method of crafting.
There are literally hundreds of differing designs among the many tribes and bands of Native Americans.
How To Make Moccasins: Equipment Required
These offered here are Iroquois design, and are comfortable as a slipper or an outdoor shoe. There were five tribes in the original Iroquois Confederacy: the Mohawk, Seneca, Oneida, Onondaga, and Cayuga tribes. Later a sixth nation, the Tuscarora tribe, joined the confederation. They can be, if you choose, made with some of the large sheets of felt and used as a teaching craft for children as well as made of the leather sheeting ( available online or in hobby stores such as Hobby Lobby), or your own tanned skins for use both inside and outside. The instructions given here are general in nature and the size and amount of the moccasin leather necesssary will depend on the size of the outline tracing of your foot.
How To Make Moccasins: Step By Step
- Trace the outline of your foot
- Measure L-M allowing 3/4 inch at the heel and about 1 1/2 inches at the big toe area or simply allow enough material to cover the heel and completely overlap the big toe. Add these measurements to the foot tracing
- C-X measurements are found by adding 3/4 inches at the heel and one half inch at the toe.
- Point A is going to be one half the distance of CX
- Line AB is the circumference of the foot
- A B plus tongue insert is equal to AB
- Fold the paper on line LM and cut the pattern so both sides will be the same.
- Do not cut out the tongue pattern
- make two tractings of the pattern on leather an cutThere is no left or right foot to this design
- sew by folding the leather inside out, bring h and h together
- using one eighth whip stitch on all seams except where gathering will be needed
- Sew hh to kk turn moccasin right side out, and bring the center of the toe flap to point kk
close the toe with a gethered stitch - sew the heel next turn moccasin inside out and bring xx together and sew down to heel using a whip stitch, turn moccasin back to right side out
- cut tongue out next using a pattern
- sew tongue to moccasin at point a where it begins to taper using a gathering stitch
- the foot opening should be one half the lengh of the whole moccasin, turn heel tab up and catch it with a few stitches..top extensions are added for your convenience.
Conclusion
We hope you’ve enjoyed learning how to make moccasins. If you have any questions, feel free to comment below and we’ll get back to you. Otherwise, you can get in touch via our social media channels.