Even Lambs Need Sheepskin!
May 17, 2016
Sometimes Even Lambs Need a Nice, Warm Sheepskin Coat!
After being born without a speck of fleece on his body, a baby lamb in the UK was gifted a cozy handmade sheepskin coat by a caring and generous farmer last month. According to The Sun, a lamb who was born completely bald was abandoned by his mother in a field in the cold and rain, but farm hand Sally-Ann Fisher found him and was able to revive him. Then she set about trying to find a way to keep the lamb, nicknamed Little Skippy, warm during the cold snap that had struck the Ramsbury, Wiltshire area of England where Skippy was found.
According to Sally-Ann Fisher, “Skippy was born outside and his mother had triplets and he was the third one to be born.” The other two lambs were perfectly healthy, but Skippy was born without any wool or birth coat, so he was rejected by his mother. Fisher’s solution for keeping Skippy warm was to borrow a bit of fleece from a neighboring farm and fashion a wrap-around shearling coat to protect him from the unexpected chilly temperatures. Lucky for Skippy, in addition to his sheepskin coat, he also has a selection of jackets he can wear to stay warm, made from old sweaters with the sleeves cut off.
Although it’s unusual for lambs to be worn without a fleece, Skippy’s lack of a birth coat does not appear to be due to any health problems, Fisher says, and the farmers taking care of him now have called him a “born survivor.” Lucky for Skippy, natural sheepskin is an incredibly warm material, and, even though he doesn’t have any fleece of his own, the shearling coat the farmers were kind enough to give him should offer the protection he needs to survive the cold weather.
Like Skippy’s fancy new coat, all of our handcrafted shearling garments at The Sheepherder are made from genuine sheepskin, not the imitation sheepskin you often see at big-box stores and third-party retailers. The hides we use at The Sheepherder have a silky wool on one side and a durable suede on the other, and, when processed correctly, the sheepskin we use to make our garments feature a hide that naturally wicks away moisture from the body and keeps you cool, even in warm temperatures.
Our sheepskin garments, outerwear and accessories at The Sheepherder are made entirely by hand, on-site at the Sheepherder shop in Alma, Colorado, where owner Diane has been creating custom shearling garments since 1989. All of our sheepskin items are made from the skins of domestic sheep raised commercially for their meat, and are handcrafted 100% in the USA, based on your own specifications for fit, color and style. That means that each sheepskin jacket and vest you order from The Sheepherder is a one-of-a-kind item made especially for you!