OK, show's on. Sort of.

I spent most of this evening preparing myself and my fabric for the First Kilt Making Experience. This is my report, divided into good and bad news:

Good news: I practiced my hand stitching on a scrap, and am now able to sew an invisible seam fairly quickly.

Bad news: Even with a walking foot, my sewing machine refused to let me match the pattern exactly. No amount of pins and/or basting helped. Every single stitch on this kilt will be by hand.

Good news: I have enough fabric. I bought 6 meters double width - and pleated to the Very Special Cheating Stripe this kilt will have about 10 meters of fabric in it (27 pleats).

Bad news: It was absolutely impossible to rip the fabric. I have spent the last half hour very carefully cutting the fabric lengthwise.

Good news: Checked patterns with red and black have stripes that are easy to follow with scissors.

Bad news: The fabric isn't wide enough to give me a center scrap to use for the waist band. Unless I'm very lucky, the waistband won't match the pattern on the apron. I might just go for a black waistband.

Good news: Only had to cut once, as the fabric had to be split in the exact center.

Bad news: My dog very much wanted to help cut the fabric.

Good news: I have an obedient dog. I told her to find her ball and go to bed - and she did.

Bad news: The loom must have been acting up when they wove this fabric - there are quite a few very ugly flaws (loops, loose ends and piques) on half of the fabric.

Good news: The flaws are on the wrong side of the fabric, most of them will be hidden in the pleats, and only one minor flaw will be on the wrong side of the under-apron.

Bad news: This has taken hours. The sun's setting, so I'll have to wait till tomorrow before I mark the pleats.

Good news: I'm very well prepared.

Good news: I've had time to listen to Philip Glass's very excellent symphony "Einstein on the Beach" while all this went on, streamed legally from spotify.com. Thank God for European copyright laws.

Good news: My parrots, who usually sing along to any music played, apparently don't like Philip Glass and kept quiet all evening.

Good won today. Will keep you posted about tomorrow (with pictures!)