I got impatient waiting for my tartan swatches to arrive, and decided to have a go at making a trad kilt (working from The Art of Kiltmaking) from a less expensive and more readily available material in the meantime. If I produce something wearable, it may be a nice hiking kilt if nothing else.

I picked up 4 yards of double-width, 10 oz black 100% cotton denim from Jo-Ann (always poke around online for coupons; you can usually find one for 40 or 50% off!) and dove in. Other discussions mention cotton twill as a desirable material, but this denim was heavier than the cotton twill that they had, and has a nice twill line itself. I don't know if denim weight is measured with the same criteria as wool tartan weight (not having swatches yet, I have no means of comparison!) but it seems pretty heavy and looks like it will hang well and hold the pleats nicely.

Tonight I finished sewing down pleat number 10, and it's starting to look like a kilt:



Some observations:

  • The denim has a very well-defined "wrong" side, and the twill line on the right side of the fabric goes in the wrong direction when going by the notes in the book. Not worth stressing over when using a non-trad material to begin with!
  • I started using multiple pins per pleat, which works well - but it apparently causes the fabric to draw in a bit; I'm running a little bit short at both the waist and bottom of the fell because I measured carefully before pinning but not after. Time to make the pleats a tiny bit wider to compensate.
  • I suspect that it would actually be easier to use tartan for a first kiltmaking effort versus a solid color. without any vertical or horizontal stripes to eyeball or measure against, it's hard to get a sense of how accurate you're actually being. The upshot is that the solid color will hide a multitude of sins.


13 pleats to go!