First Kilt

[Lady Emer]

Good Day Kilt Makers,
I am in need of some guidence. I have a tartan with a 15.5 inch sett, & 7 yards of fabric. Can it be done and look right? It has been quite a challenge, but I am determined to do it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I feel there is a way to make it work. I have Barb's book, & following it completely. Thank You, Debbie

[sydnie7]

Welcome! You're off to a good start using Barb's book. Additional questions:

What are the eventual wearer's measurements? That has a huge effect on how you would pleat/how much fabric required. Also, do you want to pleat to some version of sett or to stripe? If you can tell us the tartan, or post a photo, that would help with suggestions.

Best of fortune with this project!

[Lady Emer]

004.jpgThe person I am making the kilt for has smaller hips than waist, Barbs's book says if the waist is bigger than the hips make them the same, then figure out the splits. His waist is 41", the tartan is MacDougall, 13 oz., 30 in. wide with a sett of 15.5 in. I emailed scotweb, where I purchased the fabric, they contacted the weaver & told me the approx. sett size. My customer wants his kilt pleated to the sett. With such a large sett, I'm not sure what to do at this point. I purchased 7 yards. When I laid out his measurments for the apron, then went to the center, started marking the pleats, I got only 12 pleats. I'm sure I have possibly made a mistake. If I require more fabric could I purchase it then attach it to the 7 yards to make up the difference. I am VERY determined to learn the Awesome art of kilt making. Any advice would be Very helpful. Here is a pic of the tartan. There are 2 pins at the bottom, marking what I believe is the sett pattern 1 on the left & 1 on the right (yellow pin heads). This pattern goes is both directions. Thank You Everyone Debbie

[TheOfficialBren]

Just a thought here but with such a large sett wouldn't that normally yield fewer but deeper pleats?

I assume that you are knife-pleating by looking at your marks?

[Lady Emer]

Hello, Yes the pleats are deeper, & fewer. My book says sometimes it won't look right with fewer pleats. i'll have to read again & see if Barb mentions knife pleats. I guess it won't hurt to try & see how it looks. Thank You for the help. It definitely challenging.

[Pleater]

Usually when you are pleating to the sett each pleat has one whole sett in it, but that will not be possible with such a large sett, not with knife pleats. You might ask your customer to consider box pleats.

The thing to do with knife pleats is cheat. If you can alter each of those 12 large pleats so that it makes two smaller ones with about the same amount of fabric then you will be closer to making an ordinary kilt. You might have to make the pleats different sizes, but that is perfectly in order when dealing with a difficult sett, creating the illusion of the sett but using less fabric.

I think seven yards is a bit skimpy for a tartan with such a large sett, as you have no leeway to place the sett centrally on the front apron - unless that was taken into account when doing the weaving, by any chance. However - now that it is cut, to get a new piece of fabric and join it at the exact spot to match up could require a lot of fabric.

I have, when faced with a difficult pattern for a kilt, used a darker toning fabric to make the under apron so that there was extra material for the parts on show.

You might need to make the hip larger than the waist in order to get a good fit.

If there is a 'bay window' in front then having the aprons fall straight down from the widest part might be more flattering than having them pulled around and underneath the curve. You still then have to make the shape of the fell to widen out and over the rump whilst being fitted into the waist at the back, so the kilt measured at the hips is larger than the body size as it is going around some fresh air as well as the body.

I made and remade some dozen kilts, possibly more, before I felt that I had got to grips with the process, and must have sewn twenty before I felt that I could probably tackle most problems. If this is your first kilt, it is rather a large hurdle to take without practise.

Have you allowed fabric for the under apron pleats? They are important for movement, climbing stairs or lifting a foot to tie a shoelace without the aprons parting and sitting so that the aprons fall between the thighs.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Lady Emer]

Hi Anne, Thank you so much for the great advice. I have allowed fabric for the under apron pleats, yes. After acounting for fabric for the apron & under apron, I have about 5 yards for pleats. I know I have probably messed up not getting enough fabric. The person I am making it for is a small man with a larger waist than hips. I have figured out my splits at the waist & hips. The hip area below the fell will be a little larger than the waist. Your advice on how to cheat on the pleats I will try. Thank Goodness I have several months to do it. The advice on using a solid color for the under apron is good as well. The main color of the tartan is red, so I guess I could find that color & use it. I am quite up for the challenge & very dertermined to learn the fantastic art. The gentleman is actually my boyfriend so it is even more special for me to make it. Thank you so very much. Debbie

[Barb T]

Actually, the sett is not quite as big as you have marked it. The sett of a tartan goes from one place in the tartan to the place where the pattern of stripes repeats again. In yours, if you start marking the sett at the thin blue line that you've marked with the left hand yellow pin, the tartan repeats again starting with the thin blue line to the _left_ of the far white stripe, not where you have the right hand pin. It's easier to see the full sett by looking at the white stripes. The sett goes from the white stripe in red to the next white stripe in red (i.e., from the left white stripe to the one on the right side of the piece in your pic). So. I'm guessing now from the proportions, but that looks more like 10-11" to me, rather than 15.5".

This is still a pretty big sett, and making a kilt from 7 yards for someone with a 41" waist would be a challenge for an experienced kiltmaker, let alone someone who is just making her first kilt. The typical solution for such a tartan with a big sett is to pleat to a stripe that occurs more than once per sett, such as the kilt below:



which has a 15.5" sett but has 2 red stripes/ sett so could be pleated with a normal number of pleats:



The other solution, if you want a kilt pleated to the sett, is to "cheat the pleats". What this boils down to is picking up more than one pleat per sett. This normally works pretty well for tartans such as Black Watch, but it is _totally_ dependent on being able to identify elements that occur more than once per sett. I've looked at your tartan, and there really remarkably few elements that occur more than once per sett. I honestly don't think that there are enough for you to be able to "cheat the pleats" and replicate the tartan across the back of the kilt.

And I would say that adding tartan is not the answer - no one wants to wear a kilt with 9 or 10 yards in the pleats.

To be honest, I'm not sure what I would do with this tartan if I had to make a kilt from it pleated to the sett from 7 yards for someone his size. If I had the fabric in hand, maybe a solution would present itself, but I'm having difficulty seeing it, I hate to say. I might be inclined to give up on pleating to the sett and try a test pinning pleating to the white stripe - that would give you something of a "catsup and mustard" kilt - alternating pleats would have a prominent white stripe, but the edge stripes would alternate between the maroon and the red.

If that's not acceptable, given that this is your first kilt, is there any chance that you'd consider setting this piece of tartan aside and buying a simpler tartan for your boyfriend's first kilt? I hate to be discouraging, but the solution isn't obvious for the piece of fabric that you have.

[Lady Emer]

Oh my goodness, Thank You so Very much Barb. I am going to ask him to trust my judgement on this & pleat to the stripe. Unfortunately, The Kilt is for his daughters wedding, so he wants it with his family tartan. And also thank you for the sett advice. I have been trying to understand where the sett began & repeated for several weeks now. Rereading the chapter in your book that helps understand the sett. I know its terribly daunting for a first time kilt maker, but it has been very rewarding so far. I am an experienced seamstress, & always looking to learn new things. I wish I could take your workshop some time. I have be wanting to learn how to make kilts for a while. Thank you again for easing my anxiety about this. I will try pinning up some pleats the way you describe. If you do still do workshops, could you give me some informtion about that, please.

[Barb T]

When you get it pinned up to the stripe, take another pic, and show us how it looks!

As far as workshops go, Steve Ashton and I are running a Kilt Kamp this summer. Here's the post that describes the details:

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...tration-77600/

It's all the way across the country, but I can guarantee it would be fun and productive if you could swing it!