Hey, $8 P/V Maple Leaf Tartan!!

[Sheep In Wolf's Clothing]

Dearest Rabble!

I was never a big fan of Wal-Mart till today.
In my very infrequent spare time, I have been working on my kilt making skills. I bought Barb's book, which has been of tremendous value. (I still owe her a review, which I will get to this weekend.) One day I want to make a MacArthur tartan kilt, but before I order the expensive stuff, I have been practicing on fashion tartans that I have found at our local fabric store.

Well, today while shopping at Wal-Mart, I thought "What the heck! I'll pop into their fabric center and see what they have." While poking around in the suiting fabric section, I came across a tartan I thought looked like the Maple Leaf tartan, one of my favorite tartans. It was $8 a meter, so I took it to the table to have the fabric lady cut it. While waiting for her to serve me, I checked the tag at the end of the bolt, it said "Poly Viscous Maple Leaf Tartan 1..(the darn sticker was covering the weight I think)"
I just double-checked the tartan on a few sites and it looks "real."
It feels fairly heavy and I am very excited to make kilt number 5!

So the moral of the story is: poke around ever fabric section of every store that has one, you'll never know what you might find!

Sara
(Who hopes that the giant snow storm that has been predicted for her city hits tonight so she can stay home from work and start on the new kilt!!! Oh my, I guess making kilts can be an addiction too!!!! )

[ccga3359]

Lucky you, did you see any Ontario tatan? Oh and what they predicted is coming your way, just not as much.

[Fearnest]

Ah, Cr@p...

Now I have a reason to go into the Evil Store...

Congratulations on your find!

[MacHummel]

I've purchased that fabric before it's approx 6-8oz its ok not too much of a fan of it.

[McClef]

6-8 oz? Waaay too light!

[MacHummel]

Sorry I didn't mean to down on your purchase thats a great deal I have worked with that fabric and was never super happy. I am little spoiled right now because we have 120m of Maple Leaf is being woven for us in 12oz PV thats teflon treat in the UK .

[ccga3359]

Perhaps Sheep In Wolf's Clothing is intending to make a kilted skirt with this material. Isn't the lighter weight ideal for this purpose?

[Sheep In Wolf's Clothing]

It's lightweight, but it's heavier than some other material I used recently to make my sister a box-pleated tartan skirt. I just added a little band of lining canvas in the hem and used a little starch when washing it. It's very soft and will be great for wearing to any Canada Day BBQ's.(and yes it is a kilt but I don't want to bring that "women wearing kilts thing” up again! )So far it's been pretty ok to cut and sew.

My main point was it was a great find for a DIYer for practicing their kilt making skills. I am going to try pleating to the set with this one. If I foul up, it's not that much of a financial loss. It's hard to do much with most of the generic fashion prints found in most fabric stores. The sets are very small most of the time.

By any means I would NEVER recommend that the average kilt buyer go out and purchase Wal-Mart cloth and expect to have a long lasting tank made from it, but to a DIYer, it might just help them build their skill.

And thank goodness kilt making is rather low tec, we lost power for a few hours, but I did not notice I was kilt making in front of our living room window!

Sara
Who actually recommended CCK to someone the other day. You might hear from someone down this way soon!

[Barb T]

Just remember that the Maple Leaf tartan (if it's true Maple Leaf) is an asymmetric tartan. So, it's a little harder to lay out.

Barb

[ccga3359]

Love to see it when finished SIWC you will post pics when finished won't you.