Raccoon Fur Vest

Here is the bark-tanned raccoon fur vest I made to stay warm on the project. It’s made from 5 roadkill raccoons. The two front panels were from juvenile raccoons during the fall, so their coats were smaller and less thick. The two panels in the back are two adults from the winter. I cut a fifth adult, winter raccoon into 4 panels and stitched them on to extend the vest so that it didn’t look like a belly shirt. I bark tanned each hide with hemlock bark and stitched them together using buckskin thong. It is held together with deer toe bone toggles. The collar is made from two raccoon tails stitched together in the back. It is detachable. I wore it around the other night to test it out a bit. The bark tan job I did isn’t very great, or rather, the softening job I did wasn’t great. The bark tan was perfect. I was just too afraid of losing too much hair that I didn’t soften the hide very well. Still, it’s wearable and warm and over time it will soften up through use. I’m pretty happy with it.