material for a first homemade kilt

**uncle remus** · 13th May 14, 02:56 PM

I am going to try to sew my first kilt in the next few months. I saw the recomendation for the wool on e-bay in another post. I have found an ad for Royal Stewart tartan in pv on ebay here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/TARTAN-ROYAL...item27cfb57bab . The price is about a 1/3 of the wool. My question is how much harder is the pv to work with than wool and is this a good deal. I noticed it doesn't specify the weight. Is there a way to tell it's equivalent weight in wool?

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**sydnie7** · 13th May 14, 03:19 PM

Are you machine sewing something like an XKilt or hand sewing from a book such as the Art of Kiltmaking?

Machine sewing, you'll do fine with PV but much harder to match up tartan lines. Start with solid fabric, check fabric recommendations in the XKilt manual.

Hand sewing, spring for wool. You have to shape the fabric and wool lets you do that vs. PV which is less malleable.

Fabric weight is measured in ounces and all fabrics are measured the same way (generally speaking). There are many posts here on how to weigh/measure fabric to determine if you have 18 oz, 13 oz, etc. Doesn't matter whether you are weighing wool, PV, velvet, burlap.

Give us a few more details about what you hope to accomplish/end product and you'll get lots of recommendations!

**uncle remus** · 13th May 14, 03:36 PM

i was planning on hand sewong it. I have a machine and do sew that way but I want to do one by hand. I have a copy of taok, and have read it through several times. I am currently learning the stitches I will need to hand sew a kilt. I want something for everyday wear more than anything else.

**jhockin** · 13th May 14, 06:04 PM

Check out this website for the discount wool tartan, double wide, 12oz.

http://wooltartan.com/discount-tartans/

**The Wizard of BC** · 13th May 14, 06:16 PM

If you will look on pages 55 and 56 of TAoK you will see that to properly shape the Aprons you need to draw a large 'S' curve line.

Creating this curve in fabrics other than wool is difficult in most synthetic fabrics and impossible in Poly/Cottons. Wool on the other hand is incredibly malleable with the heat of steam.

This curve also creates the need to shape the fabric directly behind the apron edges. We also force shape into the Fell of the kilt.

Using any fabric other than wool for this shaping, will, I'm afraid, make your first kilt less enjoyable.

There is one other characteristic of P/V that you need to know about. If you have your iron on a setting other than very low the fabric creases will become virtually permanent. Once they are in there is no going back and correcting a mistake or changing your mind. Wool may be creased and un-creased almost forever.

So my advice is, if you want the best fabric, by far, for a first kilt, go with the best quality kilt wool you can afford.

As you are buying only four yards of double-width fabric the actual price difference between a cheap fabric and kilt wool is very little. In the case of my retail prices the difference between my cheapest and my most expensive fabrics is only $120.00 per kilt.

**Barb T** · 16th May 14, 08:27 AM

Ditto to what the Wiz says. Wool is much easier to sew on, and heavy weight tartan is the easiest to work with. My advice is always to buy the best tartan you can, and to get heavy weight if possible.

Although it will be your first kilt, you shouldn't think of it as a "practice" kilt. It will take you probably 40 hours to make it, and you want something at the end that you know is more than a practice kilt!

**The Wizard of BC** · 16th May 14, 08:44 AM

The first kilt I ever did completely with hand stitching I still wear. OK, it is not a Tewksbury. But I am very pleased and proud of it. It fits well, it swishes right, and I get a lot of complements on it.

You are going to sew a lot of stitches. You WILL get better as you go along. I ripped out and re-stitched my first few pleats three, four or more times. That is one of the wonderful things about making a kilt with good fabric. You do not cut out any pieces so if you make a mistake just take the stitches out and do them again.

Good Kilt wool is very forgiving. Your first stitches ARE your practice. By the end you will be good. I can almost guarantee it.

Think about the end product. If you start with some cheap fabric, and think about the job as just practice, what do you have when it's all done. You have a practice kilt. Do you really want to wear a practice kilt? If you don't wear it, you have wasted all the time and money you thought you were saving at the beginning.

Start with good fabric, do the best stitching you are capable of. Try to make each stitch better than the last. Rip out and restitch any you are not happy with.

In the end you have something you can be proud to wear and proud to say, "I made this".

**Barb T** · 16th May 14, 08:49 AM

Well said, Steve!!!!

The first kilt I ever made was a Dress Ferguson kilt for my dancer daughter. That was back in 1995, and that kilt is _still being worn_ by dancers in the group where Carolyn took her lessons way back when. I worked hard on it, made it the best I could, and, yes, ripped out lots of pleats like Steve did. Took me about 40 hours. But, when it was done, it was a darn good kilt that I was proud to have my daughter and many dancers since wear for competition. The hem has gone up and down, and the dancers have gone through several generations of hose, but the kilt is still going strong. And, if you think guys might be hard on kilts, you've never seen dancers.....

**Barb T** · 16th May 14, 08:59 AM

Oh - and my Mom always made a distinction between "homemade", which sounds a bit pejorative, and handmade. You will be making a _handmade_ kilt!

**The Wizard of BC** · 16th May 14, 09:21 AM

This quote hangs in my shop

"To some people 'handmade' means that at some time during it's manufacture, someone's hand touched it. To me 'handmade' means that before my hand touched it, it did not exist." anon

That is pretty powerful when you think about it.

Now, think about what your goal is in making your first kilt. Do you want to learn how to make more kilts? Or do you just want to make one to sort of try it all out and see if you like it?

If your goal is to make more than one kilt then adopt the concept that guides most craftsmen. You will never achieve perfection. It is handmade by a human being. There will always be something you can look at and say "I could have done that better".

A true craftsman is always practicing, always perfecting their craft.

If you want to be a professional Kiltmaker you will practice a lot. 50, 100, 1000 kilts and you are still practicing, still striving for that impossible perfection.

But not everyone is capable of doing everything well. I can't dance well, I can't play a musical instrument well. But I can make kilts well. And one day, maybe one day, I will make the perfect kilt. Probably about 10 min. before I die.