With the current surge in popularity of historical costuming, I wonder if researchers in the future will have a term for such reproductions. Like: "Sorry Bill, the chemical analysis just came in and those beads aren't from a paleolithic burial site. They're a post-atomic era repro."

This is such a striking piece sally! When you were working up the beading it heavily reminded me of the techniques we still use for regalia in a lot of native nations here in the us and Canada, but particularly the way my otaye does there beading. We use groups of beads and a similar style of back stitch to attach them (often for us it’s groups of 7 beads) and they hold quite securely for regular use. Obviously we’re using more modern materials but the effect isn’t too dissimilar and things like bone, shell, and quills aren’t uncommon. The patterns and techniques we use can help Identify who we are, often down to an individual family group. I wonder if it was similar back in the Paleolithic. It would make sense that like we do, they had pieces that held trade goods (like the amber you mentioned here and something we also did) and pieces that identified who they were and their relationship to the people around them. Overall, it was really interesting to watch your process end up in a piece that actually wouldn’t look too out of place at ceremony in my home nation.

What you have done, Sally, is to absolutely remove the idea of "Primitive" from the stone ages. Humans with competence and self esteem would certainly have done things like this. I salute you. John Warner. Australia

tunics havent changed in thousands of years, its wonderful that we find the same answers as did our ancestors.

KZfaq recommended one of your videos, and since that day, I have enjoyed watching here and there. Amazing work! Thank you for sharing this with all of us. I've been inspired to get back to crafting.

30,000 years ago people were wearing incredibly ornate outfits like the one discovered in the burial is blowing my mind.

I think that is superb!! I love it that you assumed they had a sense of fashion. Which to me goes without saying. They were human after all lol. ❤️🤗🐝

I’m stunned that the ancient people used the same sewing techniques I use everyday. My use came from necessity but I was properly trained, way back when I first started. I have long since gone my own way to re-invent these same techniques used by our ancestors. I am delighted. (I even use my favorite garlic rock to “weather” seems.) Fascinating.

Very nice ework. This may be as accuate as we hope. You were wise to use period correct materials and techniques. It is called prehistoric because we have no history of that time. Thanks to your work we may now know more than ever.

Such stunning work. Imagining what a huge investment in gathering, preparing and time spent making this represents for people in the Palaeolithic. But also how good they must have looked!

It looks absolutely stunning. I can’t believe you did this, all the seams, all the beading, in just seven days! As well as planning the design, the cutting, and figuring out the decor as you progressed. I applaud you! 👏 History is lucky to have you. I’m sure this will eventually become a display piece admired for hundreds of year in the future!

I just discovered your channel and I'm in heaven!! Your combination of common sense know-how, use of research in source materials, and above all humility is beyond inspiring. THIS is education at its finest. Thank you!!!

since i found your channel, there has not been a single time i've seen a new video pop up and had my day not be the better for it. thank you. i learn so much from you. not the least of which is to always question and learn from the details. beautiful and inspiring work

The only bit missing is the party!

Glad people can see the beauty and art of ancient people

As a leatherworker, it's interesting to see the use of whip stitching when now leatherworkers often swear by saddle stitching! Different stitches for different purposes. The piece is very lovely. :>

I always learn a lot from your videos, but this was especially interesting! I'm used to seeing discussions of historical accuracy in some of the costuming videos I watch, but this is the first time I've seen someone discuss the specific messages they're trying to convey or conversations they're trying to spark with their choices. Even among those who are doing historical dress in a museum/living history situation such as you're designing for, the discussion seems to revolve around evidence/precursors for their choices, rather than the intentional display of trade routes, locally available goods, etc. I'm sure some of that went into play for others, but this is the first time I've seen it articulated, and that's a really fascinating viewpoint. We all send messages with our clothing, but we don't always think about it consciously.

I'd go to a party in that outfit anytime! Beautiful work as usual. I'm sure the educators will love wearing this.

Fantastic as always! Thank you for the book recommendations too. :) How did you make the holes in the shells? I remember once, as a teen, making a necklace out of seashells and using my dads drill. I broke a fair amount of shells that day.

What beautiful work you do, Sally! I'm also intrigued by the books you have in your library -- I have gone off and Googled with interest. You make a beautiful model for something that, as you say, has a modern simplicity and colour-block style to it.

Beading was time consuming, this showed off the wealth of the wearer, because time is money! If you were able to spare the time to make the beads and attach them then you were that much better off than others! Long bone tubes were easy to make. Shells made great trade items for trading into the interior. Bone, shells and amber. Antler and hardwood beads going the other way? Was bead making a job of elderly or injured people? Are there any studies on how they made the beads? We’re they round versus cylinder profiles? Which were harder to make and there for more expensive? So many questions? Which is the true purpose of these channels, right

Pretty amazing and so unlike say bog dresses of the iron Age

Very visually striking and well-thought out!

Study what the native Americans wore before orig. contact. They were basically stone age. So what they wore and how they put everything together is probably a very good place to get some ideas on what and how things were. Obviously things would be diff due to region of the world and culture but still, it would be similar enough to help. And it is close enough in the past with enough records so it wouldn't be to hard to find examples and anecdotes from the people who came over and saw them and wrote down what they saw. Maybe I am wayy off but it technically makes sence. Cheers from San Diego, California. I am so pleased I found ur channel!!!

your expertise amazes me

Oh! Your work looks right from the pages of one of my favourite books: "The Mammoth Hunters" from Jean Marie Auel! Fantastic! And there is vaguely explained a method for whitening the skins :) Thank you for share!

Wonderful! It is lovely and looks like what someone in the time period would be proud to wear. Thanks for showing it to us!

if your hands hurt a lot from these projects, there's a few good stretches you can use that guitarists use all the time. just look up 'guitarist hand stretches' and you'll probably find something helpful.

Incredibly beautiful. Great work! Hugs

Love the finished garment.

Beautiful!

Thank you!

Sally, your work is amazing! I can't believe the amount of research and knowledge you have to draw on to create these types of things. I wish I could be your apprentice!

Looks wonderful even though I know next to nothing about this period except a few articals about Ötzi. Yeah the heat at the moment, dare not say it loud but I am looking forward to autum with the cooler temperatures, especially these very humid days where you feel like you can go every five minutes under the shower.

The outfit looks beautifully done. I can't believe how much work and components could go into making one.

This is a beautiful piece. Love the detail you have gone into. Could be more comfortable than most modern garments 😊

This was really hard work and came out so beautiful !!! And if there were still palaeolithic people around, they would stand in line to trade in the gown and offer you really precious items in return. 🙂

absolutely fabulous, Sally!! how I love your work and how your books drive me crazy! I still did not make needles using bones but I´ve already made several of them using bamboo. They are very useful! You are always inspiring this trip back in time.

Amazing video thank you

My god that's fabulous. Kudos to you!!

Utterly fascinating project. Thank You for showing it to us :)

Beautiful work, as usual.

It is beautiful! I would wear that! What a work! Hat off for you! Much love, have a wonderful day! 🤗

Very cool.

Absolutely STUNNING work - this inspires me to go play around with some artistic beading of my own, now. I can imagine a person wearing this and being the center of attention at a big special gathering - with the way that you've cut it they could definitely do a lot of moving, maybe even dancing, and the colors are very striking as well! All the logic makes perfect sense, and it's just gorgeous!

Wow I’m so impressed by your work. I always am, but today especially!

That is truly gorgeous!

Very impressive!

This is a fabulous reproduction garment which I suspect will survive for longer than the original reference material thanks to the ingenious thread used in its construction. Genius literally history in the making. Well done Sally for your constant inspiration.

Just ordered Theresa's book. I knew of that for a bit now but the other one is new to me. I will be picking that one up at some point.

Impressive! It really inspires the imagination of what might have been.

Fascinating, thank you. Perhaps they would've turned the hat through, like turn shoes? Very well done.

Absolutely beautiful and inspiring.

A wonderful outfit. The contrast in colors could have been used, the findings in many caves where drawings are found is that flickering fire animates the figures. The dark sides gives the ocher part pop. Beads weren't just decoration, they indicated wealth and status. The amount of time to create beads either was done during winter when there wasn't much hunting or takes away from food gathering. Great video.

Absolutely stunning! The patience you have is amazing! 👏

The tunics are fantastic!

You are amazingly skilled 👏

Absolutely fabulous!

SO COOL!!!

I had no idea there was a shoulder seam that early! I haven't ever made a leather garment, and that may be why. I also have not researched Paleolithic garments, but this is fascinating!

Absolutely fascinated with how you put together this outfit. Love it. I'm going to try and find some of those books you showed in the video. Thank you for sharing. *raises a horn of mead to you*

Congratulations! Good taste and it must be so comfy! 🤩

Stunning!

Very spiffy! Love the commentary about when and why to make choices in historical accuracy when re-creating items that don't have many extant examples to study.

This is such amazing work! You're such an inspiration and exactly the kind of person I'd like to be when I "grow up" ⭐️⭐️

Amazing work!

gorgeous work, really lovely! I do love hearing all your thinking behind the decisions you are making on the clothes and other things you make.

Wow! Amazing work and so fast. I have done a bit of leather work as well as beading but on cloth. Almost 5000 beads! Can I say how much I dislike beading? It is such fiddly work and I can never establish a rhythm. Note , not so much for you because you probably know this but other readers, if you are drilling or sanding shells please wear a good mask because the dust is toxic for your lungs.

nice

Hi Sally, I quite often collect pink shells of tellins on the beach here in Scotland, I'd be happy to send you some if you think they might be of use to you? I don't know if they're easy for you to get a hold of yourself :)

wow!! In a week....Well I am truly impressed!

Beautiful 💫

How impressing !!!

Wow!!!

Stunning beautiful and SO MUCH WORK! Amazing. Inspired to head down to the real bead store and do a little extra extra on the camp slippers I wanna make.

I really like that lighter brown and cream sitting next to each other, but I do get why you went with the other colors for the contrast with the beads.

That's some houra of bead work on there. Thanks for sharing. I am attaching point of wanting a fancy piece of clothing for the school visits we do at prehistoricexperiences. I found so many ideas an inspiration from your video. Take care and thankyou again.

Awesome and beautiful! Also the clothings ;)

Lovely! :)

I wonder what the "cost" of such an item would have been back then. I imagine it would be similar to the cost of a car nowadays, I don't really know all that much though.

My that's cool. I wonder why we ever switched to wool from hide. I assume it's simply much warmer, because making hide clothing is much less time consuming. Can go straight to the sewing step.

Wow, this is so cool! I'm amazed at how quickly you managed to stitch on all those beads! Where did you get so many bone beads and canine teeth?

Love your channel, discovered it just now. :) Two things I want to mention: buttons weren't invented until the middle ages. I think the buttons on your clothing are more decorative, but still I wanted to say it. ;) Bundles of nettles are put into flowing water like a river and left there to rot until only the strong fibers are left over. Those arr used for producing textiled. That's how they do it in asia right now and since there were rivers in prehistoric times, I guess the people would have used that, too. ;) I'm not 100% sure if the produktion of nettle-textile is described there, but in nordic mythology Loki, who turned himself into a salmon to hide from the other Gods, is caught by a net made from nettles. ;)

With real sinew, how long of a thread can you get? The piece you held looked maybe 25cm? I'm wondering whether constantly having to knot off a thread might be seen as a construction technique, in that any thread which breaks could not be attached to very many beads, so it would minimize potential loss. IDK how beads are made, but I bet it wasn't easy! Losing them would be a tragedy.

Superb xxx

I love watching your videos. This tunic is gorgeous! I thought I would help you out with the elk and moose confusion. In the UK, the moose is often referred to as the Eurasian Elk, even though it is not an Elk. (that's kind of like Americans referring to the Bison as the Buffalo, even though it's obviously not a buffalo.) There are two tricks in helping you to identify that back strap sinew. First, Americans will not generally refer to elk, or moose, as a Eurasian Elk The Elk, as identified by Americans, is the second largest animal in the Deer family. The Moose, or the Eurasian Elk, is the largest member of the Deer family. That should help you distinguish the terminology. Also, in my experience you will never get backstraps out of a Moose. If you have backstraps from the US labeled as Elk, it is going to be from an Elk, not Moose (Eurasian Elk). I hope that helps.

I really love your videos! You mentioned the other paleolithic outfits, are there any videos about them too?

Nice! I'd be curious to how the back of the yoke was treated.

Салли! Добрый день! Только что наткнулся на ваше видео. Это же натуральная попытка воссоздать одежду человека из "Сунгиря"! Невероятно! Я прильнул к экрану! В России у нас есть реконструктор Павел Семьян , ученый и энтузиаст реконструкции древних веков! Вы как-то сотрудничаете?

This is a gorgeous piece of work! A man or woman a thousand years or more would be proud to own such clothing, even if made in textile. Question, and only a question. Why do you leave the whipped stitch seams on the outside instead of turning them to the inside the way we do with seams today?

Georges. I wish to work with you :)

I just got Linda's book and it doesn't have any color illustrations. Is there more than one edition?

I question the amount of tailoring that would have been present at this time. I would think that the cut would be far more basic than shown. We know that native American people used a far simpler technique for making such garments, and never fitted the sleeves until the 19th century. Just ties under the sleeves and sides would suffice. Secondly, wearing leather is very hot, so probably would be far more likely in the fall and winter in most of the UK. On the beading, native Americans would apply beads in lines of seven at a time and whip stitch them after wards every two or three beads, giving a stronger bead field. Very time consuming.

Where did you get the beeds and teeth from?

TROUSERS!!!???

It´s funny how in comparison all those "documentaries" on the stone age depict people running around in pure fuddled over furs, without cuttings, decorations and styles....

When do you think cross stitch was invented? Why do you think embroidery is mentioned in the Bible and classical Greek sources yet I have only seen Tutankhamun's feather collar which apparently contained chain stitch? Nothing at Masada or the cave of horror was cross stitched, only woven stripes? Do you aristocratic women like Calpurnia, Arsinoe and Mariamne embroidered?