Summer before last, the girl decided to branch out from just turning our yuccas into cordage. After being inspired to make natural clothes by constructing a cattail hat, she decided to make a yucca skirt roughly modeled on the elderberry skirt example in Paul Campbell’s book Survival Skills of Native California.
The completed skirt. The buckskin shirt isn’t usually tucked in but is here show the top of the skirt.
In the past we have cleaned the fibers both by retting and by cooking. The cooking is far faster so she spent a couple days stewing and cleaning the leaves for the project. The resulting skirt was from a single large narrow-leaf yucca. To make it fuller, it would take about twice this much fiber. This is an excellent project that I think would translate well into other materials and could result in a cape, blanket, or even shelter.
To top it off, here are a pair of yucca fiber sandals to complete the outfit.
These aren’t the fanciest pair but were quick and easy. One pair can take almost as much fiber as a skirt. Next time, I’ll try to document the process in a “how to” format.
Very good job on these. I didn’t know about boiling the leaves, I have used yucca leave fibres to make bow strings but scrapped the pulp out and that’s hard work to get the fibres clean. It’s also heartening to see a young person learning some self sufficienty skills too. I wish my daughters had been more interested!
The main character in Island of the Blue Dolphins wore a yucca fiber skirt. Thanks for providing a picture that I can use with my grandkids as we do our book study!
That book was a big hit with my daughter too. It’s a great story.
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