2008 Kilt Kamp in Franklin, NC

[Tartan Hiker]

I can bring my son MadBagPiper on Friday for the Kay-Lee.

[wsk]

... I can barely sew on a button so the the likelihood that I can actually make a kilt is remote at best but I am interested in learning about the process even if I'm not likely to make something I would be willing to wear.

I hadn't picked up a needle in more than thirty years when I took Elsie Stuehmeyer's kilt making workshop earlier this month. Elsie is the the other author of Barb T's book. I had to learn everything. Everything.

I bought some of the remnant x-marks tartan from Fraser & Kirkbright so it wouldn't cost me a lot in the (likely) event that my first kilt turned out to be completely unwearable. I recognized early in the workshop that I was going to have to sacrifice quality and accuracy in this kilt just to keep up and get it finished or most of the way there by the end of the week. And I wanted to keep up with the class because there was so much to learn.

Still, despite pleating that totally sucks, the kilt fits quite well and is wearable. It just isn't as pretty as it should be - no where near pretty actually.

So, things to do before and at kilt kamp:

1. Read Barb's & Elsie's book.
2. Read it again.
3. Practice the stitches on good sturdy cloth - I was surprised at how tough and inflexible my tartan was
4. Find a seat by a window so you have good light - I was in the center of the room and on cloudy days it was a bit gloomy. This is even more important if you are sewing a dark tartan.
5. If the skin on your fingers gets sore from gripping and pushing the needle, paint the area with New Skin it helps protect against abrasion.
6. ????
7. Profit!

[Barb T]

So, things to do before and at kilt kamp:
1. Read Barb's & Elsie's book.
2. Read it again.
3. Practice the stitches on good sturdy cloth - I was surprised at how tough and inflexible my tartan was
4. Find a seat by a window so you have good light - I was in the center of the room and on cloudy days it was a bit gloomy. This is even more important if you are sewing a dark tartan.
5. If the skin on your fingers gets sore from gripping and pushing the needle, paint the area with New Skin it helps protect against abrasion.

1 and 2) I actually don't recommend reading the book ahead of time, although browsing certainly doesn't hurt. The instructions are meant to be used with tartan and needle in hand, one instruction at a time. Most people have a really hard time getting anything out of sequential instructions unless they are actually doing the task. Doesn't mean that the instructions are inadequate; it just means that they weren't written for that purpose, and it can be very frustrating if you think you can get prepared by reading the instructions.

3) If you want to practice, use tartan rather than a stiff non-wool cloth. Working on wool tartan is very different from hand stitching on, say, duck or canvas or denim. Heavy weight tartan is thick, but it isn't stiff and hard to push a needle through the way duck, canvas, and denim are.

4) In the list of "what to bring" that I've sent to those who've registered, I indicate that they should bring a task light of some kind. An Ott-Lite is ideal.

5) A thimble is absolutely crucial and also on the list. I recommend making your own comfortable one:

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/c...607/index.html

Particularly for guys, this is a much better alternative than a metal tailor's thimble.

And last, everyone at a kilt kamp works at a different rate. I'm there to teach the same step 12 times, if I have to, whenever someone needs to learn it. Conceptually, the earlier steps are the hardest and the last the easiest to get on your own out of the book. Even if you don't finish your kilt at the Kamp, it's not a tough thing to do to finish it after you get home using the instructions in the book. Elsie taught kiltmaking for years without any instruction handouts whatsoever (that's how I learned), and then it was crucial to finish before you left. Now, with the book, it's not that big a deal if you don't finish.

[The Wizard of BC]

and this last comment by Barb is why I make Kilts with a machine to my method and have never taken Barb's course.
If there are 12 students Barb would never get around to teaching the others because she would have to stand over me constantly with a big stick. The other would get annoyed by the sound of whacking. And Barbs voice would get louder and louder and higher pitched as she repeatedly said "NO STEVE! That's not right. Rip it out and do it right."
She writes books and writes books and some of us just sit on the floor chewing on the covers.

[wsk]

1 and 2) I actually don't recommend reading the book ahead of time, although browsing certainly doesn't hurt. The instructions are meant to be used with tartan and needle in hand, one instruction at a time. Most people have a really hard time getting anything out of sequential instructions unless they are actually doing the task. Doesn't mean that the instructions are inadequate; it just means that they weren't written for that purpose, and it can be very frustrating if you think you can get prepared by reading the instructions.

I hardly claim to be unique. I find that reading the instructions beforehand gives me a better sense of where I'm going - much like spending time with a map before hitting the road. I suspect that there are others out there with similar inclinations.

3) If you want to practice, use tartan rather than a stiff non-wool cloth. Working on wool tartan is very different from hand stitching on, say, duck or canvas or denim. Heavy weight tartan is thick, but it isn't stiff and hard to push a needle through the way duck, canvas, and denim are.

Most of my classmates had many years of hand stitching under their belts before they took Elsie's class. None had any experience with tartan. But, having already mastered the stitching techniques, the tartan itself didn't present any problems to them.

5) A thimble is absolutely crucial and also on the list. I recommend making your own comfortable one:

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/c...607/index.html

Particularly for guys, this is a much better alternative than a metal tailor's thimble.

I made myself one of those thimbles. Ended up not using it; it just seemed to be too much in-the-way. I didn't push the needle through the tartan from the eye-end but simply found that gripping the shaft of the needle and pushing it worked best for me - especially with the tiny little needle I used for blind stitching.

And last, everyone at a kilt kamp works at a different rate. I'm there to teach the same step 12 times, if I have to, whenever someone needs to learn it. Conceptually, the earlier steps are the hardest and the last the easiest to get on your own out of the book. Even if you don't finish your kilt at the Kamp, it's not a tough thing to do to finish it after you get home using the instructions in the book. Elsie taught kiltmaking for years without any instruction handouts whatsoever (that's how I learned), and then it was crucial to finish before you left. Now, with the book, it's not that big a deal if you don't finish.

I read the book to know generally where I was going. I handed over a pocketful of cash to learn those things that I wasn't going to get from the book. It's sort of like what you find if you read a Shakespeare play without having seen it on the stage and then read it again after you've seen the performance on stage. The second reading is more fully realized and with the reading comes a better understanding of the performance and hence the play. It feeds upon itself.

So, for me, I wanted to fully participate in the class from start to finish with Elsie periodically looking over my shoulder to guide my hand all the way through. For me, that was the best thing because when I make my next kilt, she'll still be there and the step-by-step of the book will have more meaning - else there would be no reason to hand over that pocketful of cash. Right?

I thought the things that I suggested in my first post to this thread might help those who are like me. I still think that. Not like me? Feel free to do something else.

[Barb T]

Sorry - I didn't mean to dump on what worked for you. Lots and lots of people actually don't do as well as you clearly do in reading this kind of thing ahead of time, and I don't want people to think that they wouldn't be able to make a kilt if they couldn't make sense of the instructions in the abstract.

[Tattoo Bradley]

She writes books and writes books and some of us just sit on the floor chewing on the covers.

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!


Oh man, that was brilliant!

[fluter]

Barb, thanks for all the guidance. This is going to be fun! I hope that we both make it up, SWMBO has hurt her foot & we're waiting for the foot doctor to look at the imagery.

1 and 2) I actually don't recommend reading the book ahead of time, ... The instructions are meant to be used with tartan and needle in hand,

I hope to have done some of a practice kilt from the MacFabricstore remnants (wool blend). wsk may be like me, I read technical documents for a living: The perfect job: I read books and play with computers!

4) In the list of "what to bring" that I've sent to those who've registered, I indicate that they should bring a task light of some kind. An Ott-Lite is ideal.

On sale at Joann's! Does anyone have advice on what portable model is desirable? TrueColor(tm) versus white?

I'm bringing my pipes (gotta practice....). Is anyone else bringing pipes?

No pipes, but hopefully a flute or three. [Maybe a whistle? not that I can play it...]

[way2fractious]

I read the book to know generally where I was going. I handed over a pocketful of cash to learn those things that I wasn't going to get from the book.

My experience prior to a kiltmaking seminar was making a few cotton kilts using instructions from the internet. Then I purchased The Art of Kiltmaking and tried to read it... soon finding myself lost. My first wool tartan arrived and I embarked on the step-by-step process. Barb answered a couple emailed questions at the conclusion of that project. My next tartan kilt for a friend made up a little better. I learned of one of Elsie's seminars through XMarksTheScot and, like wsk, paid a pocketful of cash for a wonderful week-long experience. However, Barb's book is still consulted each and every time another kilt project is undertaken.

So, I agree with Barb that reading the book "cold" won't give you everything. But certainly pick it up ahead of the seminar and spend some time with it. There are examples and discussions in it that will help you in the future - on your tenth kilt or with that oddball tartan. Pick up some fabric, wool if possible, and go as far through the directions as possible - use your hands, bend some fabric, get used to threading a needle and sticking yourself with it.

Ahhh... now you're ready to pay Barb to stand over your shoulder - and yell at you - and thwack your knuckles with a ruler if you do something dumb.

BTW, wsk, what possessed you to pick the hardest first project and pleat 16 oz XMarks tartan to the sett? You should be very proud of the kilt you made! (And I sincerely apologize for Elsie calling you "you-know-who". Teachers too often remember their "problem" students.)

w2f

[turpin]

Sorry - I didn't mean to dump on what worked for you. Lots and lots of people actually don't do as well as you clearly do in reading this kind of thing ahead of time, and I don't want people to think that they wouldn't be able to make a kilt if they couldn't make sense of the instructions in the abstract.

Unless you're left-handed! Says so right in the book!