The Day Plaid wrapped and pinned in Victorian era

[Pleater]

One year when attending Sidmouth Folk Festival which is a week long camping expedition, it was very wet. It didn't just rain, it poured.
Luckily I had several wool kilts and a couple of long plaids as I found I overheated underneath waterproofs, so I decided that I would just get wet.

A couple of times I was in pubs - where the sessions were held and see steam rising in the mirrors - it was me drying off.
The long plaid can be opened up and wrapped around, completely enclosing me - I am 5ft 5 - just, and wet wool becomes more windproof than it was when dry.

Several times I arrived back at the van soaked to the skin late at night broke out a change of clothes, hung up the wet ones and then drove to the campsite. By the time I arrived I was perfectly warm and could go to sleep with no danger of the bedding getting wet. Others were trying to keep warm in soaking sleeping bags.

I secured the plaid with a cord around both layers on my left shoulder and tied on the right side, not pulled so tight that it was all bunched up, it needed to be able to spread out in ordinary style or swiftly deployed when the rain started.

It was certainly rather testing, and rather than waiting for Saturday morning to go home I set off after the fireworks on the Friday night and arrived home in the small hours. Of course the weather changed to brilliant sunshine on Saturday morning and I managed to bleach one of the plaids slightly when drying it out.

Tunic, kilt and plaid certainly proved to be a practical outfit for moving around in bad weather. I did have some berets with me too - large enough to get all my hair into so stopping that nasty cold trickling down the back sensation.
There were several quite bad cases of hypothermia amongst those wearing jeans that week.