Double width vs. single - pro/con??

[TheOfficialBren]

Matt, corect me if I'm wrong but you and several other kiltmakers occasionally build kilts from material provided by the customer, correct?

[Barb T]

Absolutely - most kiltmakers do make kilts in tartan provided by the customer. I'd say that about 15% of the kilts I make are in tartan supplied by the customer. Unless someone already has a piece of tartan in hand, though, I suggest to a customer that I order the tartan because wholesale prices available to kiltmakers are typically less than the customer would pay buying the tartan at retail prices.

But I do tell someone what I am and am not willing to make a kilt out of. Personally, I prefer to work in kilting tartan, and that's what I tell people. If someone wants a kilt made of something else, I pass them on to another kiltmaker. Nothing judgmental - I just know what I like to work with.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Matt, corect me if I'm wrong but you and several other kiltmakers occasionally build kilts from material provided by the customer, correct?

Yes, absolutely. See:
http://www.newhousehighland.com/cmt.html

[OC Richard]

Great to have input from the kiltmakers!

Now, a question for you kiltmakers:

SOP for making a kilt is to use 4 yards of doublewidth tartan and "rip and flip" (as someone earlier described it) to create an 8 yard kilt. This means that there is a hidden seam in the middle of the back.

But is it necessarily so? Say that I want to get a kilt and full plaid from the same fabric. A full plaid nowadays is usually made from 3.5 yards of singlewidth tartan.

So I order 6 yards of doublewidth tartan, rip it, and use around 4 yards to make the plaid. Now we have two lengths of tartan for the kilt, 2 yards and 6 yards, meaning that the seam will be off to one side. Has this been done? Does it adversely affect the kilt?

BTW a nice thing about a band getting a number of kilts from the same bolt is that the kilts are made from an unbroken length of tartan.

[Barb T]

When I make a fly plaid, I like to use a square piece of fabric 54"x54" so that there won't be a seam in it. So, if I'm making a kilt and a fly plaid, I order 4 yards + 1.5 yards and cut the 1.5 yards off before I rip the tartan. That way, I have a 1.5 yard square for the fly plaid and two 4-yard pieces that I will join for the kilt.

It doesn't matter in the slightest where the seam is in the kilt. I've even made kilts with two seams when someone didn't order enough tartan and I needed to add in another piece. In the latter case, no one would know, provided that the dye lot, etc. was all the same. A well done seam is totally hidden and doesn't affect the swing of the kilt.

And yes - if you're making more than one kilt from the same tartan, you can buy 8 yards double width, and use an 8-yard, single width half for each kilt. No seam.

[OC Richard]

My question was about making a full plaid (3.5 to 4 yards long, singlewidth) and kilt from the same piece of doublewidth tartan. Most of the full plaids in the Army have long been singlewidth, the exception being The Scots Guards who have maintained their doublewidth plaids.

Like these

[Barb T]

Oh - my bad. I thought you were talking about a fly plaid. Yes, a piper's plaid is a different shape. So, yes, you could do what you suggested and have the seam offset. As long as it doesn't fall on the apron or underapron, you're OK!

[OC Richard]

Thanks! I was wondering if having only 2 yards on one side would be too little.

Here's a photo of a full plaid I made back in the 1980s. (That's me back in the day.) You can see the pleats in it. It took quite a while to do all that rolled fringe.

[Barb T]

No problem with an offset seam. When I'm making a kilt, I just keep marking pleats on the first piece until I run out of tartan. Depending on how much tartan I have, what the sett is, etc., the center back pleat might or might not be the last pleat I mark on the first piece. Sometimes I have an extra pleat or two on the first piece, which offsets the seam several pleats toward the underapron. Not a problem, and it leaves me with a single piece of extra fabric at the end instead of two narrower pieces that I'd have if I forced the seam to the center. Gives the client a chunk to do something with if I can't get all the tartan into the kilt.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Just confirming what Barb has said. It is not necessary that the join be in the center. I've done kilts where a single yard had to be added and the join was hidden in the first pleat. So long as it is inside a pleat it really doesn't matter which one.