It's printed not woven, but it did the job
It's a relatively recent genealogical unearthing for me that my matrilineal ancestry includes one Rachel Wilson. Wilson is a common Scottish name (pipped to the post only by Smith and Brown). At that same time I discovered that, combined with Rachel, there were entirely too many possibilities for me to narrow the field any further; hence, she and her husband William Denholm remain the earliest Scottish ancestors I've found. Of course, I'll keep researching, although it seems almost as futile as hoping that I'll ever sort out any Irish research, which is riddled with Murphys. In that respect, I'm pinning my hopes on the O'Grady line being easier to trace, as there are far fewer of them (cue hollow laughter).
Meanwhile, when invited to a Burns' Night party - that included legit haggis made by the host, as well as neeps and tatties - I decided that we could conceivably dress up using tartan that hints at the Wilson colours: plaids for the lads and sashes for the lasses. Wide tartan ribbon was the suggestion. Surprisingly, I could not find any tartan ribbon at my nearby local fabric store. I'm sure it would be available at the Caledonian Society, but that is not nearby.
What to do? Quite by accident, I discovered a piece of "this has the right sorts of colours, and it looks like tartan" synthetic fabric on the remnants table. The design was printed on one side of the fabric only. I was able to work with that to make four scarves. Dr B, who is far better at and far more enthusiastic about costume events, wanted to dress as Burns. Or-right, then. With an overcoat and a Scottish-made hat, he was good to go. He was happy to wear the tartan scarf so that we'd look like a family group, but asked if I could magic up a manuscript-style book of poetry for him to carry around? Yeah, no. Tartan-up, for sure, but there's a limit to my bookbinding skills
With enough warning, do you reckon we could try that next year?
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