One doesn't generally dye one's skirt red to keep away the Good People; a romantic notion, but notional.
A red petticoat in relatively modern times would be the colour worn by farming people - but since it's "around the world" that our heroine is going to earn her bread, it seems unlikely that she would be followed by hordes of otherworlders from her Irish home.
This article, Spinning and Weaving: their influence on popular language and literature, discusses weaving terminology including 'rock' and 'reel', quoting some Ulster and Scottish folk songs in the notes.