Lookie what I made...Tartan Rosettes

**longhuntr74** · 20th November 10, 03:43 PM

I had some 11oz U.S. Army Tartan leftover from a partially failed/aborted vest making attempt (which is a whole other story unto itself). I've always been a fan of kilt rosettes and have been planning to make myself a set of Army Tartan rosettes to go with my Tewksbury Army kilt for formal wear. Today I took the time to make them. Tell me what you think.

Front view:

Back side....thinking that I may finish them off with another piece of satin...not that it matters much:

Both of them attached to the kilt:

Hope you like them.

**Riverkilt** · 20th November 10, 06:11 PM

I love the look of rosettes! Well done. Hadn't considered doing them in tartan...hmmm...I have some tartan fabric about.....thanks for the idea.

**Drac** · 20th November 10, 06:48 PM

Nice. My wife made a rosette from some extra tartan (single layer) for her to wear. A way to get a touch of tartan in her gown or to attach a sash.

I've seen the style like this before I'm not sure about the wearing of rosettes on kilts.

Jim

kiltedwolfman · 20th November 10, 07:58 PM

Those look great! You should post a quick "how to" so others ( of course I mean me!) can make some.

**longhuntr74** · 20th November 10, 08:09 PM

Originally Posted by kiltedwolfman

Those look great! You should post a quick "how to" so others ( of course I mean me!) can make some.

Tomorrow I'll try to describe the process. It's not overly complex...just time consuming. More to follow soon.

**longhuntr74** · 21st November 10, 07:20 AM

I'll do my best here. I didn't take pics during the construction, so I'll try to describe.

The rosette portion is made of two separate strips of tartan cut square with the pattern of the tartan. The back (larger) rosette was made from a strip 1.75" wide whereas the front (smaller) rosette round is 1.25" wide.

I first attempted making them cut along the bias, but it came out as a somewhat weird trefoil pattern that was lopsided...I didn't care for the look so I went back to the drawing board. I also first attempted to fold over the tartan and fuse it together using Double stick fusible web (Steam-a-Seam or similar like Barb recommends for flashes), but I found that the double thick layer of tartan with fused webbing was a bit too stiff and thick so I chose to back my tartan with satin-type lining material to finish off the back side and eliminate extra bulk of a second layer of tartan.

This is what the strips that I used to form the rosette rounds looked like.
View of front - stitched to back lining (face to face) along one edge and then flipped over and pressed. The inner edge that will be the puckered portion in the middle of the rosette I simply left raw and top stitched to the lining to keep them together...it all gets covered by the button in the middle anyways:

This pic shows the back and front of the same strip:

- For the back part of the rosette, the finished width of the strip is 1.75", which makes the overall diameter of the rosette 3.5". Going back to my high-school math, I remember that the circumference of a circle is Pi (3.14) x the diameter of the circle...so I knew that my strip needed to be at least 11" long (calculation comes out to 10.99" IIRC). I rounded up to 12" to allow for seam allowance and a little fudge factor and they seemed to work just right. With the strip looking as it does above, I put the cut ends of my 12" piece with finished faces together and stitched across the ends on the sewing machine with about a 1/4" seam allowance to make a round "tuna can-type" form. After pressing the seam allowance flat along the backside and applying a little fusible web to keep them neat, I simply ran a running pucker stitch around the unfinished edge and pulled it tight to form the rosette round...after some lock stitches to keep it that way and tying off the thread, the main rosette round was now complete.

- The smaller rosette was made in an identical fashion with slightly different measurements. 1.25" wide gives a diameter of 2.5"...there for the Circumference came out to nearly 8"....I cut a 9" long strip of fabric...again to allow for seam allowance and a little fudge.

The center button is simply a tartan covered button made using the kits that you can buy at any JoAnn or Walmart craft section I'm pretty sure. These come in various sizes. The ones I used are about 5/8" or 3/4" in diameter...you could go larger if you choose. Here's a picture of a slightly larger size that I have sitting around the house so you know what I'm talking about.

A small note about the parts of tartan that I chose: I chose to use the khaki stripe of the tartan as the outer edge of the main rosette...the reason for this was to create a light enough colored edge so that you could see it against the kilt itself. I chose not to use the yellow because I wanted that to be the center focus of the inner rosette. Likewise I chose the black and blue portion of the tartan to form the center buttons so I had alternating muted, yellow, muted...I just think that it achieves pretty good balance.

After you have both rosettes formed and a button, it was just a matter of stitching it all together with a bunch of small stitches using a needle and carpet/button thread.

The hanging portions are cut on the bias and formed exactly as Barb shows in her instructions for making flashes made of tartan. I decided on the length, snipped off the tops and stitched them in a sort of a V shape. Once the V was stitched (I used the machine), I put a clutch type pin bar through it and stitched it to the fabric. I personally used some old single ribbon mount bars that we use for our military ribbons...I'm sure you just need to look at a craft store to find some sort of pin form. Once I punched the pins through the back ribbon drops and stitched them to each other, I stitched that back piece by hand to the back of the round rosette portion, again using carpet thread. As I stitched the back on, I carefully brought my stitches through that back rosette and caught the back side of the front rosette...and then back through to the back. Catching the front rosette simply helps to pull it all together as one piece.

Wish I had taken more pics...but I hope that helps you if you choose to give it a try.

kiltedwolfman · 21st November 10, 09:54 AM

That's a good copy bud, KW out!

**BoldHighlander** · 23rd November 10, 02:31 AM

WOW! Very nice!

**longhuntr74** · 23rd November 10, 04:22 AM

Thanks Terry. I know there are those that feel rosettes only have a place on a military kilt. Personally, I like the look and consider it a dressy option to wear in lieu of a kilt pin. I doubt that I will wear them for day wear, but do intend to put them to use for formal or semi-formal events.