Scotland and the Tartan Adventure

This past couple of weeks I’ve been traveling in Scotland, with a coda of several days in London. In Scotland, we stayed in Edinburgh where my husband had two scientific conferences which kept him (and us) tethered. We were fine with that, knowing how one can really explore a city if you are in it for a while. I’d done this before with Berlin, and now looked forward to exploring this city.

And…I wanted to buy some tartan. Or plaid, if you want to call it that (great article on that idea). We arrived in Edinburgh, took the tram to our hotel and were greeted with Conan Doyle’s statue with a cone on his head. I started laughing, but since my husband hadn’t seen much of the Tartan Army’s invasion of Boston during the World Cup this summer, he didn’t quite get the joke. I loved it. Welcome to Scotland!

The next day, our first foray to a fabric store was to Edinburgh fabrics. I was on a tartan hunt, and I wanted blue tartan.

We took a bus from our hotel (really well sited; details at the end) and in a few minutes we were there: Edinburgh Fabrics. I was not interested in the acrylic or polyester versions which I’d heard were in a lot of shops on the Royal Mile, but only 100% wool tartans from Scotland. I’ve been sewing with wool my whole life, so even though I now live in a warm climate, I wanted the traditional cloth.

Pretty quickly, I found the blue I wanted. I purchased a meter of wool, knowing that with its width, I could make a skirt. But the idea in the back of my mind was this dress:

I purchased that wool ages ago and made the dress. In cleaning out (and preparing for this trip) I found the dress again, and decided if I took it apart (one cuff and the collar are already gone; next is to separate the skirt part from the bodice part) and then augment the top with well-placed other pieces of tartan, I might get a jacket out of it. This is all in the fuzzy planning stage; stay tuned.

When I went back outside, I met the man in the blue T-shirt. His wife and her friend were inside the shop (I’d seen them picking bolts of fabric) and we struck up a conversation with him (my husband is on the left). He was cracking jokes left and right about quilters and stopping at shops. We were laughing at so many of them in complete agreement and understanding. The two couples were from the USA (the other man was in a car, driving around since they couldn’t find a parking place) and had been traveling around for 4 weeks…and stopping at every quilt/fabric shop. My kind of people!

So I ran back in the shop and took a photo of these lovely quilters. Wish we had more time to compare notes.

But the real experience I was after was a visit to Kinloch Anderson, all because of this skirt (also found in while cleaning out). I’d purchased it ages ago, the same time as the tartan plaid above, and I was interested in getting another as a souvenir for my time in Scotland.

To visit them you get on their website and make an appointment. I did that about three weeks before I left, and we had an email conversation with what I was looking for, what I was interested in buying. So the next day, my husband and I got on the tram and went to Leith, right next door to Edinburgh.

Even though the tram was a bit late, and it was a drippy rainy day, the woman who greeted us was charming and kind and put me right at ease. We talked over our options, and she told me they had kilts I could order, or they had “kilt skirts” for purchase there, but I couldn’t choose the tartan — had to pick from what they had.

I immediately fell in love with a soft green and purple skirt and tried it on. My husband thought it looked great, too. The woman helping me was ready to help me choose a tartan, get the fabric ordered from the weavers, but I told I liked this one, and would take it. I’d also done some research on the vagaries and mysteries of our country’s erratic tariffs and knew I could be paying a hefty sum on top of the shipping. It was a huge unknown.

We discussed this, and she was also aware of this limitation. For me that was a huge part of my decision to buy the kilt skirt right then. (The drape of it is shown in the black/white plaid on the right. They had two other styles, shown in the blue/green and the red.)

So what is the different between a kilt and a kilt skirt? The amount of yardage, for one.

A true kilt has about over eight yards of fabric. That is one reason why it swings so wonderfully when the wearer moves. I forgot how much was in a kilt skirt, but I think it’s more like around three yards, a dramatic difference in the amount of fabric, but also the weight of the garment. There are also varying weights of the wools; mine was a lighter weight.

Mine was mid-calf length, not short like this one. At this point, my husband took off to go get breakfast and walk around Leith, a picturesque town, so we said good-bye.

The woman who was helping me was ready to wrap up the sale, but I also wanted a kilt pin, a fancy one. So we went to an adjoining bay off the main room, and I chose one. Then she thought I was done, but I’d also read about their scrap bags. (I’m a quilter through and through.) She said she was the one to be choosing the size and color, so what did I want? Blues, of course, and about “this big,” as I held my hands in the approximate size. She left to go find the scraps, leaving me to explore in the area we’d started.

I found a true kilt. No dainty skirt hanger clips for this one.

I hefted it off the rack and laid it on the table. I was interested in seeing the construction.

I loved the hand-stitching on the above inner panel, and the neat edge treatment with the 1-inch fringe. I carefully replaced it on the rack.

They made and supplied all parts of a kilt outfit, from the jackets to the kilts to the stockings and shirts and accessories. I loved these snazzy and elegant cuffs on one of the jackets for men.

They had many books of tartan samples.

This one reminded me of my dress. I can’t remember the details of the purchase of that tartan fabric long ago, as we were all using cameras and film and didn’t document our lives to the extent that we do now.

She came back with two scrap-bags full of tartans in blue. I was in heaven! I can really have fun remaking my dress bodice into a jacket, if I can just figure out how, with some leftovers for other various projects.

My husband returned from his walkabout, and we chose two ties for him in two different tartans, one Christmasy in red and green, and one in blues (of course).

She brought out a beautiful skirt hanger and a garment bag, and we took it back to our hotel where I hung it up in the window to take a photo. This tartan’s name is “Kinloch Anderson Heather,” the skirt a midi-length.

I had one more kilt-related experience in the next couple of days. Again, I’d done some research about high quality shops to visit, as it’s generally acknowledged that the stuff on the touristy Royal Mile isn’t of high quality. Beside the one mentioned above, there was another I knew about:

Gordon Nicolson, on the end of the Royal Mile near the Parliament and Holyrood Castle. (As with Kinloch Anderson, I asked for permission to take photographs.)

Tartans everywhere in scarves, but they also make custom kilts as well as do rentals for weddings, as does Kinloch Anderson.

The black and white sporran, above, is not a skunk — like I made the mistake of blurting out loud — but is a badger. Remember that kilts have their origins in the hunting and military skill of the highlanders, and project that image.

Upon seeing the Dick Winters (above, on the shelf), the age-old question has been resolved.

I was there to look for a circle brooch or pin, as I wanted to wear it to the gala dinner at the end of the conference, with a sash (I’d found a long length of tartan in my scrap bag that I could use as a scarf).

There was quite a bit of tartan wearing that night, and no one said anything to me, so I guess I looked okay. The venue was the National Museum of Scotland. I put up a post about the floors here.

Here are the details:

Edinburgh Fabrics
Open 10 AM -7 p.m. Monday through Saturday
12-14 St Patrick Square, Edinburgh EH8 9EZ

Kinloch Anderson
4 Dock St, Leith, Edinburgh EH6 6EY, UK
Their Website This has their address, hours and a link to click for an appointment. They really aren’t too set up for walk-ins, but will try to accommodate you (but please do try to schedule yourself).

Gordon Nicolson
189 Canongate, The Royal Mile, Edinburgh, EH8 8BN
Their Website. You’ll love all the photos and tips and details, and they also prefer that you schedule an appointment. They do NOT sell scraps, but instead re-use them for accessories in their shop (I purchased a small tartan zipper bag), or donate them to charities.

While this post is mainly about my tartan adventure, I did also visit a quilt shop:
My Bear Paw
Website
Open Wednesday through Saturday from 10-5
50 Lochrin Buildings, Gilmore Place, Edinburgh, Midlothian

I purchased her original quilt pattern, a meter of checked fabric, trim and a FQ.

We stayed in the eastern side of the city at Forth House by Supercity Aparthotels, at 6 Broughton St Ln, Edinburgh EH1 3LY. It was a block from the large St. James Quarter (a mall) that has a great ramen place inside, as well as good shopping. It was served well by multiple bus stations and a tram stop.