Wrapping the Braveheart kilt

[Calgacus]

Duke,
Are you saying that this is more than just 5 yards of 60 inch plaid? In other words their is a thin strip at one end that extends a few more yards?

The Celtic Croft item that Duke shows is not 60 inch cloth, it is single width (~28-30").

There is a method of wearing the upper portion of the plaid that I think will give you the look you are after.

1. Put the plaid on as described in my post above, up to the point where you have just stood up.

2. Reach behind you (or get an assistant to help) and grab roughly the centre of the edge of the hanging upper part of the plaid. Take this point and lift it up and over your left shoulder. Pin it there, or get your assistant to keep hold of it.

3. Reach down and pick up the corner of the upper plaid which should be visible near your left knee. If it's not visible, you may have the aprons reversed. Take this corner and twirl it a few times to roll the fabric up a bit. Now pass the corner round your right hip and tuck it in beneath your belt at the back.

4. Reach down and pick up the corner of the upper plaid which should be visible near your right knee. Take this corner and twirl it a few times to roll the fabric up a bit. Now pass the corner round your left hip and tuck it in beneath your belt at the back.

5. Take a portion of the cloth that went round your right hip and bring it up towards your left shoulder. Use a brooch or clasp to attach this portion to the bit you brought over your left shoulder earlier.

You should now have something like this-

Plaid multi small.jpg

This is about 6 yards of double width. I was experimenting. For putting on, something like four yards would have been better. If I knew I had to sleep outside in it in all weathers in Scotland, I'd happily keep the 6 yards!

[crows4hire]

2014-09-15 11.01.09.jpg2014-09-15 11.04.33.jpg2014-09-15 11.05.55.jpg
I think I've got something workable... I had the aprons reversed so I hung it on my right shoulder.

[MacLowlife]

Aye, Calgacus,

If we are talking about conveniently putting it on, shorter works fine, but it is the sleeping part that adds length.

Crows4Hire, I do not mean to insult you, but please note all of the terminology:
The Great Kilt is the wrapped length
The Philabeg is the "little kilt"
A Plaid ("PLAYED") is a separate blanket/shawl/scarf and, depending on the wearer's inclination, can go anywhere from a big bandanna to several feet, wrapped or draped accordingly

[crows4hire]

No offense taken and duly noted. Thank you.

[Benning Boy]

TRIGGER WARNING: Benning Boy presents ideas that may not be acceptable to those who think themselves traditionalists. If you are offended by ideas at variance with your beliefs, you may want to drop out.


I'm kinda going off on a tangent here, this sorta fits the topic, but is sorta off topic, too, but here goes.

Usually when searching for answers, the simplest answer turns out to be the correct one. The way of wrapping a blanket (plaid) shown at the Wilde Weavery site it the simplest answer to the question: How to wrap a great kilt?


The nine-yard great kilt seems to be a fairly recent invention. The required length, based on what I've learned through my readings, has only been firmly established since the arrival of the Internet. And, on the Internet much of the information about the 9-yard great kilt seems to be produced by people interested more in playing dress-up. I consider these claims specious.

Just as today, the length of tartan used to make the kilt probably was more in proportion to the size of the wearer, just enough to do the job, and no more. My guess is economy and efficiency were primary concerns. At no time has a 9-yard great kilt been either economical of efficient.

Today, nine yards of tartan would make a kilt for a very large fat man. It's almost a certainty that Highlanders of McBeths day were small fit men. Why on earth would they need nine yards of tartan for their great kilts. Even allowing for the use of the thing as a blanket at night, and a double layer of blanket at that, these men could probably have gotten away with four to 4.5 yards total length.

I suspect that a Highlander of McBeth's day wore whatever length he could afford, if indeed they wore anything kilt-ish at all, and most Highlanders of that day being poor, probably only wore a short "great Kilt" more in the fashion shown at the Wilde site.

Just a speculation, but if you spend enough on proper tartan today to construct a 9-yard great kilt, you will have spent quite a lot of money. No let's consider how prices have changed over the centuries. Going back just a little way, in 1873 you could buy a new Colt Single Action Army revolver with a $20 gold piece, containing almost exactly one ounce of gold. Over the years the price of the revolver really hasn't changed. It's always been one ounce of gold. Even today were you to buy a new Colt SAA, the price would be roughly the equivalent of one ounce of gold. Or put another wya, the equivalent of a common man's monthly wages. And today there are a whold lot of common folks in the USA who are doing well to earn a monthly wage matched by the price of one ounce of gold.

So just for argument's sake, let me say that the price of tartan has pretty much paralleled that of a Colt revolver -- and the price of other things, too -- If It's expensive to make a 9-yard great kilt in today's money, it was probably equivalently expensive in "old timey" money, or barter. Which says to me the Great Kilt, was probably only about half-great.

Just my imagination running loose here, but I can see how a great kilt might start out being fairly short, but as the wearer found the need, or acquired more tartan -- either purchased or woven at home -- he might add length to it. The early short wrap would almost certainly be wrapped as shown at the Wilde site, as it grew long the wrapping of it might become more complicated -- maybe.

Being that the great kilt is properly made of two pieces of single width cloth stitched together at the edges, I can even imagine a great kilt made of two different setts. Pieced together a great kilt might have more setts. I can think of no source who states this sort of thing did not happen, but neither are there sources that say it did happen. Conceivably, it could have happened.

It is declared at various online sites that the great kilt requires nine yard of tartan to make, no more, no less. And, it is said at these sites that is from the great kilt from which our expression "the whole nine yards" comes. Consider: linguistic authorities have said the expression comes from the world of tailoring, where nine yards of cloth are what is needed to make an average man's three-piece suit. A customer might tell a tailor he wanted the whole nine yards in his bespoke suite, meaning trousers, jacket and vest. Yet other authorities say that a nine yard long machine gun belt was all that cold be fitted into a World War One aircraft. A returning pilot, having run out of ammunition, would then say he gave them the whole nine yards.

There isn't a one good answer for the origin of the nine yard expression. It cannot conclusively be said to have originated in the Scottish Highlands, where English wasn't the first language anyway. I think a much shorter length of fabric put on as in the Wild site makes he most sense.

Consider what Calgacus says about Scottish mens clothes of McBeth's time probably being more like the Irish liene and brat. Looking at pictures of the day, it looks to me like the brat could have been worn in the style shown at the Wilde site. Just for pretend, let's say tartan is a form of camouflage, and that Scots in Brinam Wood were dressed in liene and brat. Now it is time to sneak up on Dunsinane. Would it have been helpful if they had pulled their brats about them much as shown at the Wilde site to further enhance the natural camouflage they carried before them?

[BBNC]

Alternatively check out a matchcoat.

http://wildeweavery.com/matchcoats.htm

The wearing of a blanket in this manner has a very long and well documented history.
If we accept that the Great Kilt has its beginnings as the leine and brat,
If we accept that plaide means blanket,
and if we accept that it was supposed to be an all purpose garment,
this is probably much more realistic.

Whenever I see those directions that have you laying 18 feet of modern fabric out on the ground and laying on top of it,
All I can think of is -
What is the first thing you have to do when you wake up?

If this was supposed to be your sleeping blanket and it took that long to get dressed - Do you really want to go through all that laying out of fabric, laying down and arranging "The whole nine yards" of modern kilt fabric just to go to the latrine?

Try it for yourself. grab the blanket off your bed and wrap up in it like you see pictures of American Indians. Simple, easy, practical and historically correct.

Steve, were all those patterns of blankets you pictured typical of the 18th and early 19th century? I noticed one has the tick marks for 3 beaver skins required to trade for it. Are those all Hudson Bay blankets?

BBNC

[The Wizard of BC]

A point of clrafication -

The "points" you can see along the edge of a Hudson's Bay Point Blanket denote the overall finished size and weight of the blanket. The Official Hudson's Bay Site de-bunks the myth that they denote the number of pelts needed to buy it.

http://www.hbcheritage.ca/hbcheritag...anket/history/

For my public demonstrations I use an original Scarlet Red HBC 4 point blanket. (4 points denote a standard today's double bed size or 70" X 90")
Like many people I wrap up in a blanket on chilly evenings. When I found information on Matchcoats I began to experiment. Using just a belt I found, after just one try, that it works eminently well. If you add a pin even more so.

It just makes no sense to me that someone would think it more practical to use more yardage of modern kilt fabric when a single blanket works so well.

The example we have of two lengths of single width fabric joined together are fairly recent. Even Peter who wrote the articles says that they are products of the post proscription revival era.

So if you don't mind I am going to continue to promote the matchcoat as the most practical and most historically documented example. At least until someone finds documentable proof of what a Great Kilt really was.

[Benning Boy]

There was at least one other early trade blanket maker who also used the point system to denote size, a company called Eatons or Eastons, as I recall, out of England. They supplied traders not a part of the HBC system. There may be information obtainable through The Mueum of the Fur Trade site.

In my mind, to do all it is said that if could do, the great kilt would have to actually be blanket weight material, not light kilt cloth, not even regimental weight.

[MacLowlife]

Aye, Benning,

One wonders just how finely spun that Highland wool was. I am inclined to think it was heavy indeed.

I am not looking to start an argument, but the price of gold has not been as consistent as we might think. Granted, today's price matches nicely and it did when they first made Colt SAAs, but there have been wide ranging variations of the price of gold, even times when gold was positively cheap compared to, say Tartan or various forms of hardware. But I expect you could find some other item that has been more constant, say beer, or fuel.

I appreciate your warning about The Whole Nine Yards, which might or might not refer to anything at all. I am sure you are right about the expression having no connection to the great kilt. Charles Thompson says 4 1/2-6 yards. When I fooled around with a 9 or 10 oz version ( admittedly, to wear, not to keep warm) I found 3 or 4 yards was plenty, once you learned to work the ends...

[jhockin]

You will require approximately 9 yards of single width fabric cut in half & stitched together to make a piece of cloth roughly 4.5 yards by 2 yards. Or alternatively, approximately 4.5 yards of double width fabric.

I think that you meant to say: ' 9 yes of single width, cut in half, Lenght wise...'? ( not width wise) in other words , about 4 1/2 yes once sewn together?