Confessions........

[sydnie7]

Ya know, it's not just the pleating properly aspect that has me nervous and spooked - it's the whole thing about tapering pleats and such when still keeping the sett and lines and all properly lined up, etc.

Sure, I'd think that a straight-up-and-down-formation-of-a-pleat that ends up with 'x' colored line properly verticle and 'y' colored line properly horizontal shouldn't be that hard if carefully done. BUT WHEN I GET TO THE 'TAPERING' ASPECT IN THE BOOK....

Maybe it's a mental concept hurdle, but 'it's gonna work out straight, but it will be tapered.....but it will come out looking straight.... but it's not gonna be the same size at the top, middle and bottom all at the same time....but it's gonna come out straight.... UhHUH.

I think it's a concept better experienced than written about. That is, try it, and I think you'll get that "AHA" moment where it suddenly becomes clear because you are seeing it instead of trying to visualize it from somebody else's words.

This from a person who makes her living as a technical writer, no less but much as I love the language and the joy of clear expression, there are some things you just have to put hands on and DO. (It's a family board or I'd provide analogies LOL)

[Alan H]

You know, what intimidated me was not the sewing, what just seemed impossible to me was setting up the pleats and tapering them....TO SETT. To stripe didn't seem that hard, but pleating to sett seemed hard. So I bought some inexpensive stuff and just figured "what the heck"...and went to it. It was hard but it went OK.


Then Piper George's lady commissioned me to build a tartan kilt for Piper George, which would be pleated to sett, and I gulped hard and said "Okay". thirty-something hours later, dang, but that's a pretty decent looking kilt.

If I can do it, YOU can do it.

[Scratchy's Lass]

it me ::gulp::

Know, I know that 100% hand-sewn is the (for lack of a better phrase) 'purist' way to go...... but I have arm/elbow/wrist/hand/finger problems of the health sort (post bilateral x2 elbow surgery, carpal wrist surgery, blah blah). Thus, I had figured on doing a significant portion of the sewing on a machine.

There's NO way I could w/my crummy fingers and hands do a decent job of hand-sewing EVERYthing.

So....... if one is going to blend hand and machine sewing (albeit even on a 'trainer kilt' heheh.....) what portions/items/sections really must be done by hand, and which are 'ok' by machine, as in, it won't be obvious (if machine sewed properly) ?

Thanks!
m

[Barb T]

The hardest on the fingers is pleating. But it's also the stitching that shows the most if you do it by machine from the outside. The alternative is to stitch each pleat from the _inside_ (the way you'd do for a skirt). This is not easy to do, and you'll likely wind up with a lot of trial and error until you get something that you can be happy with. The two issues are getting the pleat size correct and getting the tartan stripes to match.

Rocky at USAKilts makes his kilts this way so that the pleat stitching doesn't show from the outside, and he is _really good_ at it. Even so, he says he rips out a couple pleats on every kilt.

One of the tricks is to really pull fore and aft on the fabric as you stitch to keep the top from shearing with respect to the bottom. It might also help to use a "walking foot" if you have one, although I can't remember hearing about someone trying this.

[Alan H]

I'd hand-stitch the pleats and machine stitch more-or-less everything else. Well....

Let's do it this way.

1. if you have to blind-stitch and hem the fabric, best to do that by hand.
2. the right-hand edge (the fringed edge) of the over apron can be "stitched in the ditch" and you won't see the stitching as lot as you plan the fold-over carefully. Then you do a few hand stitches at the hem and at the waistband and press the bedickens out of it with an iron and a damp towel and you're good to go.

3. the little tucks and bobs and so on to refine the fit are best done by hand.

4. the interfacing or better...hair canvas that you put in the front can be attached by machine.

5. The reinforcing strip in the back , across the cutout pleats will have to be hand done.

6. the steeking will have to be hand-done

7. attaching the waistband can be done by machine, though.

8. The fold-over and final attachment of the waistband will be hand-done.

9. making the buckle straps can be done by machine, and attaching them can be done by machine. I STRONGLY , STRONGLY encourage you to look into how Matt attaches the buckle for his under-aprons. It's MUCH easier than the traditional method. I make all my tartan kilts that way, now. That has to be hand-done.

Upshot is, you can do some of the kilt by machine and nobody will know. When I make a tartan box pleat, I sew the tapers to each other by machine. I still have to rip one out, but it's so much faster than hand-sewing that it's worth it. I can make a nice, wool, 4 yard box pleat in about 15-18 hours, now.

[sydnie7]

making the buckle straps can be done by machine, and attaching them can be done by machine. I STRONGLY , STRONGLY encourage you to look into how Matt attaches the buckle for his under-aprons. It's MUCH easier than the traditional method. I make all my tartan kilts that way, now. That has to be hand-done.

Short of purchasing one how could a person get a glimpse of this? I've done a lot of reading here lately but don't recall seeing this particular topic.

Or does this tread to dangerously close to "what's under the kilt" territory

[Dixiecat]

Making kilt from Tartan is not something for beginner IMHO. But making kilt out of single colored fabric or camo is not such a big deal

I would argue that making a camo kilt is not making a kilt from tartan and pleating to sett which is the object here. The only way to do that, is, well, to do it.

I was very lucky in that my first tartan was a Black Dress Erskine. A very simple symmetrical tartan, but tartan non-the-less. Because I got it on sale I was able to plunge right into kilt making without a 'trial' kilt. That kilt went on to be sold with matching knitted socks for over $400! Don't think that I went nuts with the money, it promptly went towards a length of Dress Eildon, some velvet, lining, braid and buttons and I'm currently wearing it for dancing!

While I don't know the details of your 'hand health' Scratchy's Lass, the hand-sewing in kilt making is not intense and is far simpler to negotiate than machine sewing would be. If you are using Barb's book, the pleats are not pinned prior to sewing and are worked one at a time, also each pleat is hardly more than 10" long. By that I mean, one pleat is formed and sewn before any other pleats are sewn. Do you think that you could set up in a ergonomic and comfortable position, sew one or two pleats before resting your hands?

Certainly, the straps and other parts could be machine sewn. Anyway, good luck with your project however you decide to proceed!

[Alan H]

making the buckle straps can be done by machine, and attaching them can be done by machine. I STRONGLY , STRONGLY encourage you to look into how Matt attaches the buckle for his under-aprons. It's MUCH easier than the traditional method. I make all my tartan kilts that way, now. That has to be hand-done.

Short of purchasing one how could a person get a glimpse of this? I've done a lot of reading here lately but don't recall seeing this particular topic.

Or does this tread to dangerously close to "what's under the kilt" territory

Well, basically you're going to make a strap out of tartan material, aligned so that the tartan matches the pattern in the kilt right below the waistband.

OK, so how might you create such a strap, and then put a hole in it for the tang of the buckle? **rhetorical question**

[sydnie7]

Well, basically you're going to make a strap out of tartan material, aligned so that the tartan matches the pattern in the kilt right below the waistband.

OK, so how might you create such a strap, and then put a hole in it for the tang of the buckle? **rhetorical question**

Aligning the tartan implies that this strap is attached to the outside of the front apron? Overlying the fringe as it extends toward the buckle? Or am I mis-imagining the placement of this hypothetical strap with its rhetorical hole.

Thanks for all the advice and food for thought.

[fluter]

I STRONGLY , STRONGLY encourage you to look into how Matt attaches the buckle for his under-aprons.

Short of purchasing one how could a person get a glimpse of this? I've done a lot of reading here lately but don't recall seeing this particular topic.

Or does this tread to dangerously close to "what's under the kilt" territory

There's a picture here. He attaches the buckle to the under-apron, and the strap to the inside of the waistband. Thus there's no "buttonhole" in the waistband; it's buckled under the apron.