I also made a tartan shawl

[AlabamaCelticLass]

Ok, a confession... I LOVE tartan! If anyone is a Seinfeld aficionado, you may remember one of my favorite lines by George Costanza- "If it were socially acceptable, I would drape myself in velvet." My goal is to figure out as many ways as possible to wear tartan, and find or [preferably] create those pieces until I have a wonderful, colorful, expressive wardrobe of tartan. I have so many ideas in mind. Sashes, skirts of all lengths and styles, jackets, dresses, handbags... anyway. You get the idea.

I recently posted the kilted skirt I made and wore to Stone Mountain Highland Games in October 2019, using instructions I found on this forum. I used Celtic Croft's "homespun," a poly/wool blend, in Anderson modern tartan. I had some left and come January 2020, I wanted to make something different to wear to our Burns Supper. I was set on a sash but couldn't really figure out how I wanted to do that. I decided on a poncho-style shawl.

I began with a 52" x 34" piece of tartan. Not too worried about symmetry and being in a hurry, I drew a neck hole on paper. When free-handing a neck hole, always start small then cut bigger if needed. It is WAY too easy to cut a neck hole too big. I learned that lesson while making my first 18th century shift [chemise].



The long sides are the selvage, which is very tightly and nicely woven, so they needed no hemming. The cut end, or short end, needed finishing. Instead of hemming, I decided to fringe them in the same manner used for my skirt. I stitched a single tight & short straight stitch a little ways from the edge, then pulled the weft threads out.




Here it is in production on my vintage 1950s Singer 301A. Naturally, my supervisor was present.






Here it is on the hanger:




And here I am wearing it at our Burns Supper in Conyers, GA earlier this year. First one is me giving the reply from the lassies, second is out front with my gorgeous husband: