Description
About Your Southern Plains Tab Leggings Pattern
The style of men’s Tab Leggings has its beginnings among the Eastern Woodlands and Great Lakes tribes, but, as they migrated onto the edges of the Plains, their new neighbors acquired many of their garment and decoration styles.
From the resulting intertribal contacts, we find that, by the reservation period of the late 1800s, Comanche and Kiowa men were wearing their own versions of Tab Leggings, made from buckskin and incorporating hand twisted leather fringes. This style remains popular today with men of these tribes, as well as Straight Dancers wishing to dress in the Southern Plains fashion.
The instructions provide basic construction information, details on how to prepare the fringe, and examples of various ways the leggings can be decorated.
Notions & Tools
Simulated sinew or button & carpet thread, sharp scissors, awl, 8G Glovers needles, yard stick & ruler, rotary cutter (or Xacto® knife or razor blade), cutting board, beading thread, seed or cut beads, beading needles.
Material Requirements
It is difficult to specify the amount of leather you will need, owing to the variation in men’s heights and thigh measurements. However, below we have given some general guidelines. Select medium to light weight buckskin for these leggings:
