"For auld lang syne"

Celebrate Robert Burns night in high fashion! Daphne loves to dance for all of the Scottish folks at the Robert Burns dinner. Robert Burns was a famous Scottish poet born on January 25, 1759.

Tonight Daphne will be dancing the Flora McDonald Fancy and the Blue Bonnets. She's wearing her favorite pink national outfit.

Daphne's vest closes up the front with a silver lace tie and her plaid is securely held to her shoulder with a pretty broach.

From behind you can see her plaid that drapes over her shoulder.

Although most Scottish girls wear their aboyne skirts with a separate blouse, Daphne's blouse is actually sewn to her skirt for ease of dressing. She also sports white knee socks and ghillies.

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne!

Chorus.-For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne.
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne. " - Robert Burns

Burns Night Dancer

Celebrate Robert Burns night in high fashion! Daphne loves to dance for all of the Scottish folks at the Robert Burns dinner. Robert Burns was a famous Scottish poet born on January 25, 1759.

Tonight Daphne will be danicng the Flora McDonald Fancy and the Blue Bonnets. She's wearing her favorite pink national outift.

Daphne's vest closes up the front with a silver lace tie and her plaid is securly held to her shoulder with a pretty broach.

From behind you can see her plaid that drapes over her shoulder.

Although most Scottish girls wear their aboyne skirts with a separate blouse, Daphne's blouse is actually swen to her skirt for ease of dressing. She also sports white knee socks and ghillies.

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne!

Chorus.-For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne.
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne. " - Robert Burns

Gray Aboyne

I love making dance costumes for dolls, and for the first time ever I made an outfit for someone as a thank you gift. Last Thanksgiving my cousin gave us all a wonderful surprise, she sent the entire family scarves for gifts. She had crocheted all of the scarves by hand and sent them for around twenty different female relatives who were able to attend Thanksgiving dinner together. I can't imagine all of the work and planning that went into scarves. She even included all of the little girls, and my daughters really loved them. I wanted to send her an equally awesome thank you, and a regular card just didn't seem like enough, so I surprised her with an outfit for her doll (she also collects American Girl dolls).  I wanted to make it special, so I created an aboyne for her like my daughters wear when they are Scottish dancing.

 Here is my doll, Daphne, modeling the outfit I made for her. Normally when I make doll clothes I try to design them so they are easy for my daughters to put on and take off their dolls. But because my cousin is an adult, I was able to make the outfit a bit more authentic. Scottish dancers wear the aboyne for the national dances. The aboyne consists of a gathered tartan skirt, a tartan plaid worn over the shoulder, a white peasant style blouse, white petticoat and a vest that laces up the front.

Normally when I create an aboyne vest I use ribbon stitched to the front to give it the appearance of lacing (this is easier than having to lace up and tie the vest for my daughters every time they want to dress their dolls) but I actually created a real lace-up front on this outfit for my cousin.

I really love the way the vest laces down the front and ties at the bottom. Notice the Scottish broach on the right shoulder. The broach is used to pin the plaid in place (dancers also pin the plaid down in several other places so it doesn't fall off while they are on stage).  One thing that is really fun about working with a plaid material is that you can change the look of the outfit by pulling a different color in to highlight. If you look back at some of my other aboyne posts, you'll see that I've used this same plaid material to create other aboynes, but when it's paired with a blue vest it looks different then it does with the gray.  I really love how sophisticated this outfit looks, and my cousin said it was the best thank you ever, so I was really excited!

Flora McDonald's Fancy

Highland dancers wear the aboyne costume when they dance the national dances such as the Flora McDonald's Fancy.  The national dances are "softer" more feminine dances than the Highland dances (such as the Sword and the Fling). Clarissa is wearing a pink Highland dance aboyne.  Her outfit has a pink tartan skirt that is gathered at the waist.  Her white blouse has puffy sleeves, and she wears a matching white petticoat underneath.  Clarissa's vest is made from a raspberry felt and has gold ribbon lacing up the front. There are "petals" around the bottom of the vest.

Highland dancers also wear a plaid. This is a piece of tartan material that is pinned to the shoulder of the vest with a broach and the plaid drapes down the back of the dancer. Most dancers attach their plaid to the back of the vest with some hidden safety pins so it doesn't fall off while they are dancing.

One of the things I really liked about this outfit was the color of the tartan fabric. It has raspberry pink, purple and gold stripes.  I thought it would be fun for Clarissa if she could change things up a bit, so I made her a second vest so that she could completely change her look.

Clarissa's second vest is a lilac purple color. This vest has pink ribbon to lace it up the front. Like the other vest, the plaid is attached at the shoulder with a broach (I used a button that resembles the broaches my daughters wear with their costumes). 

 This vest is a bit plainer than the other one (I accidentally left off the petals and didn't realize it until the vest was completed).  I love the way the different color vests look with this outfit. It makes it lots of fun to get ready for a dance event!

Great Scot! Highland Aboyne Dresses

A collection of aboynes. Our dolls are ready to hold a dance competition.

Julie models a turquoise aboyne. The aboyne costume is worn for many of the Scottish national dances. This outfit consists of a gathered tarten skirt and matching plaid, a vest, blouse and petticoat.

Julie's vest provides a clear view of her Brooch. I used buttons which closely resembled the brooches that the dancers wear to attach their plaid to the vest.

The back view of Julie's aboyne.

Julie wins the trophy at her Highland dance competition.

A close-up of Wendy's light pink aboyne vest. A tradional vest would lace up the front. Wendy's vest velcros in the back. I then trimmed the front of it in a silver braid to resemble the look of a traditional vest.

Wendy's aboyne is made from a light pink plaid material. She wears Irish ghillies (there is a difference between Scottish and Irish) which she borrowed from the American Girl Irish dance outfit.

The back view of wendy's aboyne. Her plaid is stitched to the back of her vest so that it falls nicely behind her.

Elisabeth models a light blue aboyne oufit.

A close-up of Elisabeth's aboyne vest.

We created our own medals by sewing buttons (with Scottish thistles) onto lenghts of ribbon. The ends of the ribbon can either be sewn together or simply tied in back. We found mini trophies in the party supply section of Target.