waistband tartan for a very tall man's kilt

[bonnie heather]

A problem came up recently. I was working on a kilt for a very tall man with a kilt length of 27". The tartan was 55 1/2" double width. After cutting the two 27" lengths, there was only 1 1/2" left of the weft length, which is too narrow for a top band. Yikes! What to do???
I ended up machine double-stitching two lengths of the 1 1/2" weft strips together to make a 2 1/4" seamed strip for the apron part of the waistband where the tartan pattern needed to line up. Then I joined a length of warp for the underapron and back. Luckily it worked, but just barely.
What do kiltmakers do in such a situation? Advice would be very much appreciated!

...bonnie heather

[Barb T]

The first thing I'd consider is to use the 1 1/2". You can hold the strip down about 1/4 inch from the top and stitch it with only a 1/4" seam, and you can fold it over and stitch it higher than usual on the back side of the kilt and put the lining on almost to the top edge of the kilt. You can actually get away with 1 1/2" that way without having an extra length-wise seam.

What if you don't have even 1 1/2"? Anticipate the problem by ripping off a weft-wise strip before cutting the tartan in half so that you have a strip that is as long as possible. For lots of kilts, this is plenty. If it was a bigger kilt, I'd piece the strip somewhere along top of the underapron.

The big issue with this solution is that tartan is not truly a "45" weave, and the warp and weft never match exactly. A weft-wise strip will not match the tartan in the apron if you use it for a top band, and there's nothing you can do about it if the kilt uses up the full width. I make sure that I tell the client why the top band doesn't match and tell him that his belt will hide it anyway.

This latter issue is why I try to use even a narrow warp-wise strip for the top band.

[Big Mikey]

Don't worry, you could use a different colour as done here.



I wondered why the maker had done this and he explained that due to my size and the kilt length, there wasn't enough material to finish the top of the waist band. Still a darn fine looking garment and I am very happy with it.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

It is always an option to use a solid color waist band like you see in Mike's pic above. Regimental kilts are always made with a green waist band. I've seen a lot of solid black used in kilts that are rather long, as you describe, and also kilts that have been altered (if you let out a kilt, the waistband it came with may no longer be long enough, so it gets replaced with a solid black).

Matt

[bonnie heather]

Thank you so much for your very helpful advice!!!
Barb, your solution is brilliant! I wouldn't have imagined it's possible to use such a narrow warp strip for the front apron. But now I see that it can be done, thanks to you! (Also, please pardon my goof in reversing the terms warp and weft).
Matt and Mike, I had never thought of using a solid color band in black or green, and it's very good to know that option exists. It looks very nice in Mike's photo. Thanks!
There's so much to learn in becoming a good kiltmaker, and I truly thank you for sharing your expertise.
...bonnie heather

[Barb T]

And, you could really probably do it with a strip that's just 1" wide. The only reason for the top band at all is to enclose the raw edge. So it doesn't even half to be 1/2" deep. I think it would look better to have a 1/4" deep top band that matches than a 1/2" deep one that doesn't!

[bonnie heather]

Barb, that's amazing, and I see what you mean. After doing the narrow strip on the apron so that it's securely stitched outside and inside the kilt, would you then do the back and underapron top band (using the weft-wise long strip you've reserved) with the same 1/4" width? I'm guessing yes, but asking because the top band on the back of the kilt always seems to come out a bit wider than the aprons, no matter how much I pull and smooth, because of the thickness of the pleats (even with the cut outs). Maybe my pulling method needs improving. Hmmmm.
Thanks so much for the advice!

[Barb T]

I'd still make it the same depth, but, because of the thickness, it might, as you point out, not be possible if the strip is only an inch wide. That would be cutting it pretty close.

[cloves]

i really like Mikey's kilt with the black shirt, but i'm curious to see it with say....white. Would you be forced to NOT wear a belt? Because if you did, you'd have two distinct black horizontal bands.

[Dalmore]

A quick question, related but unrelated...
...if you don't mind my asking, how tall is this person? I am, what I consider to be tall (6 foot 3 inches) and a 24" length works fine for me (kilt to the top of the knee).

I guess this means I'm not so tall after all.