Need a Dbl check on my measurements

[Bart_In_A_Kilt]

I agree with Wally about the hips split. I also agree that you don't want lots of little itty bitty pleats. Most of the kilts I made have 23-29 pleats, which gives a nice size at the hips.

Your tartan has a pretty small sett. I'd seriously consider doubling the sett and having 20-ish pleats. Not sure where you got the 8" pleat depth from this. The pleat depth, if you doubled your set, would be just about one sett deep (or about 4"). That's perfectly fine.

Since this is your first kilt, having fewer, wider pleats will be easier (and quicker) to make. That's a plus as well.

20 Pleats would give me a 1 & 3/16" reveal at the hip with a 4 & 1/8" depth. or so my calculator tells me.

[Barb T]

20 Pleats would give me a 1 & 3/16" reveal at the hip with a 4 & 1/8" depth. or so my calculator tells me.

Yup - that's a little wide for the pleats, but not horrible. The alternative is to have more pleats that are narrower and are 2" deep or so. But you wouldn't be able to use all your tartan. Me, I'd choose the 20 pleats doubling the sett so that you can get as much cloth into the kilt as you have - more swish (and, as the Wizard says, also more swagger and swoon...).

[Bart_In_A_Kilt]

OK... finally some resolution I can live with.... Measure twice, cut ounce as they say.

My Kilt Calc reafirms just what Barb is saying ( like there was any doubt )



and now on to the actual pleates themselves. After blasting around this forum, I came across a few alternative pleating to the stripe with Stewart Black, and I kind of like it.

Mostly because I wanted to bring out some of the secondary colors, and also wanted a bit more "flash in my flash".

So here is a really bad illustration I cut and pasted together in paint to highlight what I'm talking about. Stewart Black guys should get this right away.



Opinions always welcome

[Pleater]

I made a kilt with 50 small pleats - the pattern made me do it, and it is OK but it was the devil to sew and ironing it is not something to be taken on lightly.

If you can get fewer deeper pleats it will be an easier project.

I don't see the large pleats in your calculation - am I missing something?

Traditional kilts have one extra large pleat and two under apron pleats - I usually have just less than double the fabric of a small pleat in them.

Anne the Pleater

[Barb T]

You never really know how many pleats you'll have until you actually lay out the kilt and figure where the apron center stripe will be and where the sett falls relative to the apron edges. It might wind up being more or less than 20 pleats, depending upon how much you have allowed.

Be sure that you test pleat your tartan using the size pleats that you'll actually have at the hips, and do it with the tartan and pins, rather than by scanning and looking at it on the computer. If you choose to use wide pleats, your kilt will look different that the kilts that you show in your post. The only way to tell for your tartan is to actually pin it up. Sometimes what you think you want to do doesn't work at all.

And once you've roughly pinned a half dozen pleats (like what's below), stand back about 20 feet and see what it looks like.

[Bart_In_A_Kilt]

Started sewing the pleats today ( actually last night till 1:30 am ).

This material ( from JoAnn Fabrics ) is pretty light weight, and I was afraid that it wouldn't hold a pleat. This being my first kilt, I am treating it as a practice piece. Barbs book is never too far from me, but I am altering a few things and using a sewing machine as much as possible.

Honestly, when I saw that pic of Barb working on a kilt in a campsite, she looked so at ease, like kiltmaking is almost "theraputic".

Me on the other hand, I have no patience what so ever. Anyone that can hand stitching these things I am in awe of. Maybe I'll get there, but I don't know if it will be anytime soon.

When I bent the needle Rod on our trusty 60 year 'ol Singer 301, I ordered the part on line to fix it. Not wanting to loose any time I started to hand sew a few pleats... and thought that I was going to loose my mind.

[ChattanCat]

You might want to check the fabric content. Jo-Jo's is selling Polyester/Rayon and it holds a pleat very well.

[Bart_In_A_Kilt]

You might want to check the fabric content. Jo-Jo's is selling Polyester/Rayon and it holds a pleat very well.

This is a 65% Polyester / 35% Rayon Blended Tartan pattern ( Stewart Black ). It was a close out product that I picked up dirt cheap. It was red tagged marked down, then marked down further for clearance. I picked it up for under $3.00 a yard. So I had them check neighboring Jo-Jo stores and bought that too. All told I picked up about 15 yards of this stuff.

Plenty to play with. I was hoping for a kilt and fly plaid out of the lot.

[Bart_In_A_Kilt]

Kilt is mostly sewn, but still have a few adjustments to make, and a few items to finish.

It's been an adventure so far, thats for sure. The parts I was waiting for to fix my old Singer were no longer in stock, and I had to wait for an ebay opportunity to come along for a used replacement part. That set me back a few weeks.

This will be a 50 yard Kilt. ( Looks best from 50 yards away ). but that's OK. It's my first try and Im still proud of it.

I'm finding with test fits, that my belly is so big that it threw off the split that I used for my Pleat / Apron measurements a bit., Again,... "Oh Well."

I figure a good hard weekend and I'll have it done enough to post pictures. Till then.

[Barb T]

This will be a 50 yard Kilt. ( Looks best from 50 yards away ).

Ooh - I almost sprayed coffee on my keyboard. I REALLY REALLY like that. I'll laugh all the way to class on that one! Did this great phrase just pop into your head, or had you heard it before?

This could easily become another XMarks standard (like "tank" and "lawn chair effect"....), don't you think?