Gunns & Roses(43)
Brianna picked up the bristol board that had captured Emily’s attention. “Two of the foundational things you need to know before beginning a kilt are how to choose the best material and how to take correct measurements. On this board are just a few of the tartan patterns available. When choosing a tartan for a child, or a dancer, a kilt will look best if it’s made using a pattern in proportion to the size of the wearer.” The instructor pointed to three tartan patterns on the board. “These are examples of patterns suitable for an adolescent.”
“Like me?” Emily asked. “I’m a dancer too!”
Brianna took the young girl’s interruption in stride. “Yes, you would be the perfect size for these patterns.” She touched the three choices once again. Peggy, Alice, and Annie all started to dig into their bags for notebooks and pens as quietly as they could. Noticing, the demonstrator told them, “I’ll be handing out copies of the information I share today, along with resource pages. That way, you can watch what I do with undivided attention.”
“Oh, thank you!” Alice said, gratefully. “I can imagine how funny my kilt would turn out if I missed writing down a step.”
Brianna nodded in sympathy. “That’s why I wrote up the notes. I’m a very visual learner and could never fully enjoy a demonstration when I was desperate to make sure I had not messed anything up while taking notes.” All of the kilt-making students, including the group from Stony Point, relaxed in their seats.
Setting the board back on the table, the instructor picked up a stack of tartan squares. “Another thing you need to know about kilt material is that it comes in several different weights, such as super fine, lightweight, medium weight, heavy weight, and regimental weight.” As she talked about the different weights of fabric, Brianna handed each student a set of tartan squares so they could feel the difference. After hearing the details of each weight, Annie made a mental note to herself that heavy-weight fabric would probably be best for Ian with his concern for being appropriately dressed for a public event like a Robert Burns dinner. Meanwhile, Peggy decided a lightweight fabric would be fine for Emily’s kilt.
Next, Brianna showed them examples of different versions of some tartans. “This group is a wee bit familiar to me,” she said, handing out four squares of tartan. Annie spread the four swatches on her lap. Green was the dominant color of two of the squares, while another used a wider band of black along with the green, giving it a darker look overall. The last square used tan as its background color. Annie stared down at the different renderings in fabric.
Brianna lifted one of the green squares. “This is the ancient Kincaid tartan.” Exchanging it for the square with a brighter green, she said, “This one is the standard-color tartan.” Next she held up one with a green so dark that, at a distance, it would be hard to see it contained both green and black with a thin red line. “This is what the modern colors look like. And last,” she said as she exchanged the dark square for the tan one, “this is a reproduction tartan.”
Peggy blinked at the last square. “What? That one doesn’t look related to the others at all.”
“It can get confusing,” the instructor admitted. “Which is why I have listed the website addresses for both the Scottish Tartans Authority and the Scottish Register of Tartans on the resource pages I’ll be giving you. You can look up any tartan on those sites.”
“Oh, good. I’d never keep all those different tartans straight in my head,” Peggy said. With her years of experience at The Cup & Saucer, Peggy could remember many special orders at a time, but all those variations of fabric made her head spin.
Setting the samples aside, Brianna turned next to the proper method of taking measurements for a kilt. When she emphatically declared one should not try to take measurements for oneself, both Peggy and Alice glanced slyly at Annie, who pretended not to notice. Apparently, somebody was going to have to measure Ian’s waist—two inches above his navel—and his hips, and the length from his waist to mid-knee or above. Her friends made it clear to Annie who they expected the measurer to be.
An air of creative industry pervaded the tent as the group learned about pleating a kilt, what it meant to pin “to the sett” and “to the stripe,” and the differences between different types of pleating. With her friendly, no-nonsense style of teaching, Brianna soon had her students recognizing knife pleats, box and double-box pleats, Kingussie and reverse Kingussie pleats, military box pleats, and tube pleats. Even Emily yelled out “Kingussie!” when the instructor held up an example and asked the group which pleat was used.