The ladies of the Scottish Women’s Institutes of Tayside and Fife have a friendly but fierce rivalry when it comes to their traditional competitions.
But a new survey has revealed it is the women of Dundee who have top slot stitched up when it comes to local sewing skills.
According to the SWI study of 1,000 women aged 18 to 95, around 95% of ladies in the city’s group have the necessary talent to sew on a button, compared with 90%, 88% and 75% in neighbouring Angus, Fife and Perthshire, respectively.
While the bombshell statistics are likely to spark controversy across the region, the report also revealed an array of other qualities. Dundee ladies had slightly better dressmaking skills, with 53% able to sew a garment compared to 50% of their Angus counterparts.
Fifers proved the best ba kers, with 100% of ladies adept, pipping Dundee and Angus on 95% and Perthshire on 75%. An impressive 97% of women in Dundee were able to share photos online, compared to 81% in Angus and 79% in Fife.
But only 40% of women in Angus were able to use Skype or Facetime, against 75% in Dundee and 77% in Fife.
On a national level, the survey showed that six times more women want to learn DIY than baking and there was interest in car maintenance, how to fly, how to dance, how to drive and how to crochet.
Less than half of one percent of women want to learn traditional sewing stitch crafts like embroidery and cross stitch while most want to learn a foreign language.
Chairman of the SWI Christine Hutton said: “The survey shows that there is still an appetite to learn what might be considered to be traditional SWI pursuits.
“More than 46% of 18 to 24-year-olds want to learn how to sew a garment. Where better to learn this than with SWI members?”
The top 20 skills most Scottish women would like to learn:
1. Learning a foreign language
2. Learning to play a musical instrument
3. Arts and crafts, including painting and drawing
4. DIY, including building, carpentry, carpet fitting, wallpapering and plastering
5. Sports, including diving, golf, martial arts, surfing and snowboarding
6. Sewing dressmaking
7. Knitting
8. IT skills, including how to use social media
9. Cooking
10. Crochet
11. Professional skills, including leadership, finance and public speaking
12. Driving
13. Singing
14. Dancing
15. Flying
16. Car/bike maintenance
17. Baking including cake decoration
18. Gardening
19. Photography
20. Writing, including poetry
For more details visit www.theswi.org or www.facebook.com/Scottish-WomensInstitutes.