First time Kilt - little sewing experience

[Married a Scott]

Hello everyone! I apologize if my question has been answered, trying to read all the posts, but there are TONS!! My husband is Scottish and would love to have a kilt, but we don't really have the money to get an "official" kilt made from his family tartan. I have recently become a stay-at-home mom and am looking for activities to do - and thought that a kilt would be a good project!

My question is, my husband is a BIG guy - like 6'4" tall and about 350 lbs. He has a HUGE beer belly. I am wondering, when I am looking at things about measurement, am I supposed to be measuring his waist as where he wears his jeans, UNDER his belly, or at his belly button?? I have seen kilts worn both ways, and I don't want to screw it up or do all this work on it and have him look silly wearing it. I have read that I should pick a less expensive fabric to experiment on, so I will be sure to do that - but I was just wondering about the measurements!! Thank you for your help and any other information you could give me would be Great!! I think I will find lots of information on this website!!

[brandycr]

Kilts are not easy to sew .I love to sew make everything from quilts to dresses for me daughter and myself but a kilt is hard .Not so much the sewing its all stright lines but the pleating and pinning .If you go to google they are many sites with directions.

[Doc]

First, , I would measure at the navel. But there are several different styles of kilt, worn in a low, medium or hi rise to the waist. What type of kilt were you going to try? Several members will say try the x-kilt for your first kilt, I agree. The instuctions are very straight forward. They are in the DIY forum. Again welcome and don't be afraid to ask, but do watch out for falling puns and such.

[The Wizard of BC]

The single best thing anyone can offer as advice is to find a copy of Barb Tewksbury's book "The Art of Kiltmaking"
Available on-line at celticdragonpress.com

[brandycr]

Oh yeah shes a member and awesome kilt maker!Dont know why I didnt think of that good on you the wizard of bc!Follow the wiz's advice find barbs book!

[Weasel Mender]

Being of equal size with your husband my recomendation is "the X-marks box pleat in a HEAVY weight poly cotton blend It worked well for me Also check Tartan Hiker's strap mod for the kilt works great
Weasel
PS I measured at my navel

[cacunn]

I stand 6 foot 1 inch and have a beer enhanced waist line. When making a kilt what you are starting with is a cylinder that goes around the belly and the back side. The apron in the front hangs down straight from the belly and straight for the back side in the back. Once the cylinder is measured the top of the cylinder is tapered in the back to adjust for the amount the back side sticks out.

I would suggest a couple of things:

1) Start by watching Steve Ashton’s instructions on how to measure fro a Freedom Kilt. Steve is a member of this forum and gives a very good insight on the measure measurements for a kilt. This is found at: http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=26096

2) Download and read Alan H’s instructions for making a X-Kilt. This is a box pleat kilt designed for a solid color fabric. IMHO (in my humble opinion) I would use a poly-cotton blend that is wrinkle resistant rather than the cotton twill suggested. This manual can be found at:
http://www.modelautoracing.com/kilt/X-Kilt_final2.pdf

3) I slightly disagree with brandycr about sewing the kilt. The x-kilt is a simple design and fairly easy to make. Brandycr is right in that the hard part is all the straight lines that need to be sewn. Non-wool materials don’t hold a pleat as well as wool and to compensate the pleats are sewn in. This is done by sewing a line of stitches about 1/16th of an inch back from the pleat edge. This can be tricky. Take an extra piece of material and practice. I have a foot for my sewing machine that has a foot for making blind hems. It has an adjustable guide that sets the distance between the needle and the edge of the cloth. This makes it easy for me to sew a line very close to the edge of the material.

4) Make an X-Kilt while waiting for your copy of Barb Tewksbury's book "The Art of Kiltmaking" to come in the mail.

5) Read Barb Tewksbury's book "The Art of Kiltmaking"

6) Everyone on this forum is happy to help and give assistance. The various kilt makers are great in the way they will assist everyone with advice they have learned over the years.

Welcome and have fun.

[McMurdo]

About the measuring question, for a traditional kilt you would measure at the belly button, or true waist for a more casual kilt you measure from the waist, the same as jeans. I think that a traditional waist is best as it has a slimming effect.

[morrison]

A. all above.

ditto


and
A warm welcome to ya Married a Scott.

[Pleater]

The proportions are really important - particularly with a big guy, you need to make the kilt long enough so it doesn't look wider than it is long - even if it isn't, it can give that impression.

You could try having him hold a piece of material at different heights around his waist level - maybe with a belt if he is going to wear a belt with the kilt, and fold it to different lengths so you can see what looks best. If it looks right from the front then its most likely going to be OK the rest of the way round.

I'd also say try your hand at knitting the kilt hose - so you can make some which are fairly chunky, as fine ones are going to look a bit sparce on a big man.

It can be a little difficult finding a fabric right for making a kilt. You don't want it too thin, nor too stiff, so many dressmaking and upholstery fabrics are out. It should be fairly heavy but soft enough to swing fluidly as that will also help when shaping the pleats into the waist at the back. It also needs to be non fluffy, or be pressable down into a non fluffy state, so that the multiple folds do not add too much bulk to the hips. You can cut out the back of the pleats to reduce the thickness, but it the fabric is dense to start off with it helps.

Of course a high quality all wool twill is going to be the easiest to pleat and sew, but it can be quite expensive. If you have more time than money you can always make a trial kilt in an unsuitable fabric just so you know you can work out the pleats and how to shape the aprons, then have the garment to try on at the end and see if it looks right. Something like a poly cotton sheet or duvet cover will be fine for that, and an old one which is softer better than a new one.

You might find that you need to twist the aprons and the pleats so as to get them to look right.

At the edge of the aprons there are a couple of large pleats which go under the aprons and give enough hem so that the aprons are not pulled apart when climbing up stairs for instance. The visible edges of the aprons are shaped with a slight flare - the under apron is only shaped one side as the other edge is hidden. All that means that you can make adjustments so that when the pleats are sorted out and neatly fitted into the waist at the back the top of the aprons proceed on around the waist so the aprons do not wrinkle or stick out. The kilt should fall as straight as possible from the hips front and back.

I am sorry if that seems rather daunting - but once you can get some material into folds and have it tried on it should be easy to see what needs to be done.

I make all my kilts and after a few false starts it became simply a matter of getting the folds in the right place and then sewing them accurately so they did not twist. Thats another thing - you need to sew on the grain of the fabric. If the fabric is twisted by being rolled wrongly, you need to straighten it before starting to sew (ask me how I know?)