How to Make Paper Woven Tartan
What better way to celebrate St Andrew's Day than with this incredible, easy-to-make paper woven tartan kilt project! Kilts have been a recognised feature of Scottish heritage for centuries, so let your creativity run free with this project ideal for beginners.
Follow the simple instructions below to create your own personalised tartan patterns. We've provided some example templates to get you started!
Project and instructions by Gill Fraser
You will need
You will also need
*HB pencils
*A ruler
*Stainless steel scissors
*A glue stick
How to make
Follow your chosen template to prepare your weaving base. For template 1, I used a sheet of A4 black card. For template 2, I used a sheet of A4 blue card.
For template 1, cut the following from the short edge of sheets of A4 card:
White: 11x 1/2cm strips
Green: 6x 1cm strips
Red: 5x 2cm strips
For template 2, cut the following from the short edge of sheets of A4 card:
Green: 7x 1/2cm strips
White: 7x 1cm strips
Yellow: 4x 1/2cm strips
Yellow: 4x 2cm strips
Please Note: The following steps are to make the kilt for template 1. The weaving process is the same for both template patterns just using different colours and width of card strips.
Using the completed project photo as a guide, take a white card strip and weave it over and under the black strips. Slide the woven strip through the top and glue the ends to hold it in place.
Weave a green card strip in an opposite pattern to the first. Your first strip went over and under the black strips, the second should go under and over the black strips.
Slide the woven strip so that it sits up against the white strip above, and glue the ends to hold it in place.
Mark 1/2cm in from both edges of the top of the first woven white strip of card. Draw a line from these marks to the bottom edge of the woven piece.
Cut along these lines. You may need to re-glue some of the edges.
Now to create the belt! Cut a piece of black card 4cm x 21cm, and glue this to the woven piece along the top of the 1st white line of weaving.
Trim the excess belt strip.
To make the belt buckle, cut a piece of silver card 6cm x 8cm making sure to round off the corners with scissors. Then, fold a sheet of felt in half and place the piece of silver card onto it shiny side down.
Emboss the buckle by drawing a fancy border on the back of the piece of silver card (press down with some force to ensure the pattern shows through to the front of the buckle).
Glue the buckle in the middle of the black belt.