Quote Originally Posted by Thunderbolt View Post
Now, I'm on the part where it says I need 1/2 hip measurement plus 15-17" AND 1/2 hip plus 5-6" for the underapron! You gotta be kidding!? for this kilt, that's 43" to 46" AFTER the last pleat!!T.
Yes - you need that much material after the last pleat so that you can have 15-17" for the inverted pleat next to the underapron and the 5-6" for the facing on the left hand side of the underapron. In other words, you need more fabric than it actually takes for just the pleating and the two aprons.

Start by finding the middle of the fabric and lay out half the pleats each way. If you put the middle pleat at the end of the first half of the fabric, you'll have enough fabric left on the second half for the inverted pleat and facings without having to do any extra figuring.

The pleats on trad kilts that I make are typically 3/4"-7/8" at the hip, rather than an inch at the hip (and it's the hip measurement that you want to base it on). So, for a tartan with a set of 7" or so, you can get 25-27 pleats into a kilt. That's pretty typical. It's rare to see a man's kilt with only 20 pleats. If you have 8 yards of tartan, you'll have enough fabric for that many pleats.

Is it going better, or do you still have questions?

Barb