Quote Originally Posted by wsk View Post
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