This tartan is only made by House of Edgar and is part of their “Old and Rare” tartan line. It is not an old tartan (designed in the 1930s), but is rather rare since most Burns wear the Burns Check tartan or the Campbell Clan tartan, as the Burns family is an associated family of the Campbell Clan.

My Tartan Search
When my parents visited Burns country during the mid-1990s, they brought me a Campbell Clan tam as a souvenir. They were unable to find the Burns tartan even within Burns country. Later, in the summer of 2005, after being inspired by a Scottish festival, I began searching for the mysterious Burns tartan.

I found an American importer of Scottish tartans in 2008 who informed me that the mill had only 3 pieces of fabric left in the double-width, one piece was 1.7 yds and the other two pieces were 1.2 yds each. After purchasing the largest piece, my family tartan has been carefully stored in a very special, safe place, thereby preventing anyone from actually appreciate it.

I want to wear it and appreciate it, but I am terrified of cutting it.

What’s it really like, this tartan?
This tartan is a mediumweight 100% Pure New Wool kilting cloth. The tartan itself is 4 colors – red, blue, yellow, green – woven in an even plaid. An even plaid has the same woven striped sequence running in both horizontal and vertical directions, so I have a small advantage with this tartan since even plaids are easier to work with OR SO THEY SAY.

When folded diagonally, an even plaid will line up perfectly.

My Pattern Selection
Today, on the 201st anniversary of Robert Burns’ birth, I declare that I will use and appreciate this tartan this year. I’m thinking of a pencil skirt, with bias-cut side panels. The current (February 2010) issue of Burda has a skirt that just might work. I’ll work on cutting out the pattern tissue and muslin now.

Initially I found a free baby pinafore pattern, but after I printed and cut out the pattern tissue, I couldn’t tell if it would be big enough or not. So I decided to take the safe route and buy a pattern.

I chose the pattern tissue from M2213, view D (in size small) to cut the fabric and the lining, but then I sewed it together as I wanted. The original pattern has open side seams with fabric ties, but I didn’t like that design, so I simply sewed it as a pinafore with buttoned shoulder straps. It took me longer to cut the fabric than to sew it together, but perhaps that’s because I hate cutting out fabric. The odd thing is, I hate cutting out fabric so much that I often put the project aside indefinitely after I finish cutting because I am so sick of it by that point. Maybe I hate cutting because I have so many projects cut but never sewn!

The lining is a lightweight cotton gingham from my fabric stash. Although it doesn’t exactly match, I decided it was unlikely people would notice the lining. I had some cute baby buttons in my button box, but decided to go with the plainest buttons possible: 3/4″ navy blue, shank buttons. Plain definitely looks best, methinks.

I can’t tell you whether or not I’m happy with the finished product since I haven’t seen what it looks like in action, but if it fits properly, I’ll be very happy with it. Her mother says it is still a bit big for her now, so maybe she’ll grow into it by Spring.

It’s such a soft corduroy that I’m tempted to get some more to make something for myself. I have a few scraps left over, so maybe I could put those to good use.

Space is at a premium in our home just like at yours perhaps. Our place is small by American suburb standards, but huge by European or city-living standards. It’s a lot of room for fabric, thread, yarn, craft books, and notions to be strewn about, but I don’t want to make my husband look at my work-in-progress ALL the time (just most of the time), so I recently undertook a serious organization project.

The Plan

1. Gather up and take a look-see.
   I gathered up all my sewing stuff into one place so that I could take inventory. I pulled out fabric hidden in the back of drawers, patterns shoved in the bookshelf, thread hanging out in my travel bag, and pin cushions from all sorts of places. Once I had everything in the same place, I had a better idea of what I would be dealing with. I had a bit a fabric, a stack of sewing magazines, several dozen pattern envelopes, and lots of little bitty notions. The most striking discovery was my penchant for clearance/sale zippers. I love invisible zippers!
2. Sort and filter.
   I never realized how many packs of hooks and eyes I had until they’d all been gathered up. I decided not to filter any of them out of my notions collection, but instead I sorted them into little, glass spice jars so that I could keep them organized by size and still identifiable in their spice jars.
   I had lots of fabric scraps and interfacing scraps that weren’t really big enough to be useful to me and weren’t important enough to take up more space, so I filtered them out of my sewing assemblage and into the rubbish bin.
3. Decide on a sewing space.
   Initially I had been sewing at the kitchen table, but I had trouble clearing off the table in time for supper each day. I can’t stand having a kitchen table full of clutter when it’s time to eat, so I needed a different solution. My husband’s very flexible about dealing with the aftermath of my hobbies and crafts, so he didn’t mind if I took a corner of the dining room to set up a permanent sewing nook. This nook isn’t big, so I can’t have lots of storage furniture; I knew I would need to use wall-space to organize and store my tools.
4. Find the best use of the space.
   I have my grandmother’s sewing cabinet. It’s one of those little tables that has a folding top, so it takes up very little floor space. I pushed it to the sewing corner and then placed my machine. On the wall behind the machine I left the chalkboard that was already there so that I could use it for my notes and I could hang my sewing instructions on it.

   I wouldn’t have enough room in this corner for my ironing board, fabrics, and patterns, so I put these aside to find another home for them.

   Next I needed a place for my most common notions. I wanted shelves that weren’t deep, but could hold lots of little items, would provide easy access to my notions, and wouldn’t be too hard to install. I decided to go to a local thrift shop to look for shelving. After a cruise around the shop, I spotted a wooden, knick-knack display shelf. It was quite heavy, probably made of pine, but it was a good size. Actually, I found two of these shelves, but another lady grabbed the second one from me! I only had room for one shelf anyway, lady! After I brought it home, my husband helped me hang it on the wall in my little atelier.
   
   I placed common notions on the shelf. For things like buttons I put them into glass jars for easy storage. For machine needles I hot-glued magnets to the backs of needle cases and then stuck all these needle cases to tea tins. The tins hold measuring tapes and markers. I didn’t have enough room for all my thread, so I left most of them in another room on my thread rack, the one my dad made for my mom about 20 years ago.

5. Lighting.

With a coupon from a national craft chain-store, I purchased a task light to place above my machine.

Outside my atelier, or “sweat shop” as my husband lovingly calls it, I’ve placed my fabric stash inside the living room ottoman. The fabric is mostly organized by type: linen, knits, wools, and cottons. For my pattern envelope collection, I’ve placed them in two drawers in the guest room, but created my pattern database here on my blog so that I can easily search through them. I’ve hung the ironing board on the back of the guest room door, but one day I hope to get one of those wall mounted, fold-away ironing boards. Ah, I can dream…

• Project Details: An all cotton sun hat to save my hair from any more fading.
• Pattern: This hat was made from Vogue pattern 7600 (V7600).
• Fabric: As called for, I used 100% cotton: Alexander Henry’s “All Cotton” in blue 1696A.
• Lining: I used some light moss green batiste from my mom’s scraps.
• Notions: ribbon. The pattern envelope didn’t call for ribbon, so this notion was a surprise in the instructions. I used some ⅞” striped, brown ribbon I had on hand.



• Pattern Description: There are four hats in this pattern by Patricia Underwood. I chose the hat designed with a large brim and a flat top crown. There’s a lotta lotta topstitching that’s both decorative and functional. This pattern uses quite a bit of fabric and interfacing because you have to cut out big, round pieces.
• FO looks like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope? Yes, I think my finished hat does look like the pattern envelope hat although I can’t get my brim to turn up so evenly. It’s all in the topstitching, methinks.



• Were the instructions easy to follow? Yes, the instructions were easy enough to follow, but the notions list was incomplete.
• My particular likes / dislikes about the pattern: I forgot to read the pre-instructions, so I stitched a seam or two before I realized the seam allowance is ½” instead of ⅝”. It was easy enough to fix since I caught my mistake early. I don’t like incomplete notions lists, but I do like all the topstitching even though it took me about 2 hours to do it all. I think it looks great with the brim turned up, but if you leave the brim straight, it is very floppy.



• My pattern alterations / design changes: No mods! Can you believe it?
• Would I sew it again or recommend it to others? Yes, I think I would sew this sun hat pattern again. (I don’t think I’d ever sew the turban in this pattern.) I made the smallest size (21 ½” head circumference) even though my head circumference is 21 ¾”. It’s a smidgeon too tight, so I may make the medium size next time (22 ½”).

When we got together, we both had purchased our fabric, so we began by cutting fabric, lining, interlining, and interfacing. She used my mom’s machine and I brought my machine so that we could both sew at the same time. It took us all afternoon. I was busy fiddling with my own modifications for the first several hours, but L steadily made her way through the pattern as written. It’s times like these I’m jealous of L’s smart strategy of simply sticking to the original scope.

• Project Details: A girls’ afternoon of sewing up a cute, quick, and easy sling bag.
• Pattern: Oh frannson’s Margaret Bag.
• Fabric: 100% cotton duck (#10) with a retro green and blue geometric print from my fabric stash.
• Lining: outdoor cotton canvas in solid navy (scraps from another project).
• Notions: a big button, interfacing, flannel for interlining.
• Pattern Description: lined, sling bag with inside pockets and button closure.
• FO looks like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope? Yes.
• Were the instructions easy to follow? I’ll be honest, I didn’t really read the instructions. I tried to insert an interior zipper at first, but it took several hours of unsuccessful sewing and ripping. By the time I gave up on it, L was so far ahead of me that I just copied her. The instructions seemed to have clear photo descriptions, but the color printer didn’t work, so we checked the photo instructions on my iPhone as we sewed.
• My particular likes / dislikes about the pattern: I like how easy the pattern was to put together and I especially like the gussets. We did not need as much fabric as the pattern called for, but we used an awful lot of interfacing! I like the size of the final FO and mine is quite sturdy. I’m not terribly happy with how my button and button loop fasten, but I could modify it to suit me.
• My pattern alterations / design changes: I added an extra interior pocket with zipper. It looks like crap, but it’s fairly functional. I also used a twin needle for the first time when doing the top stitching on the strap and opening.
• Would I sew it again or  recommend it to others? Yes, I do recommend this pattern. It’s clear and uncomplicated, would work with lots of different fabrics.

L’s bag is really cute, but I forgot to take a photo of it. She did the facing in black and white sprial-ish print with a pink lining. Maybe she’ll post a photo on her own blog.