tear dress etiquette

[webweaver]

does anyone know the tradtions of the cherokee tear dress? i heard form an unreliable source that the ribbons sewn over the shoulders is reserved for elders and matrons,, but all patterns and dresses i have ever seen have ribbons on the shoulders,, is this an outdated tradtion,, or proper etiquette? thank you

[Laitlaitinen]

Well, If you are making a traditional dress thier is not allot of ribbons. Thier are dimonds over the shoulder and around the middle of the skirt. I was just helping someone make a dress for a wedding. She had 3 children, so she had 3 diffrent color dimonds, yellow, black, blue, yellow,black,blue-.

Ribbon was somthing that was expensive to them, so not that many people used it.
Now about the shoulders, we had help from someone who learnd how to make dresses from people in Okla. And did not stop us from doing it.