First Kilt from Maclean of Duart Handwoven Tartan Fabric

**macleaniii** · 10th February 17, 07:36 PM

Hello!

After about 5 weeks I have finally finished my first kilt! I got into handweaving a little over a year ago, primarily due to my love of tartans in general. Taught myself how to weave and built a 4 shaft table loom out PVC pipe. After about 10 projects I moved on and picked up a 1970's floor loom used and since then has become my workhorse. As someone with Scottish heritage (Maclean) and a tartan handweaver, a kilt is something I've always wanted. I knew I would want to have it made from my own handwoven cloth, so I just decided to buy TAoKM and try doing it myself.

I went with a 2/17 lambswool yarn from the U.K. The site I ordered from showed the red color I chose for this project as a shade darker. When I received it, much to my surprise it was a true Scarlet color. So ultimately, my Maclean of Duart cloth was going to be very "modern". Here are some pics during the weaving process:

Warp beam.jpg
Warp wound on the warp beam.

Heddles.jpg
Threading heddles - my least favorite part.

Loom Progress.jpg
First sett done.

Washed.jpg
Drying. This sucker was heavy too when washing. Took two weeks to weave 7.5 yards. I originally planned on doing 8.25 yards (enough to allow for shrinkage when washed); however, I had to stop short at 7.5.

Overall, I think my first kilt came out pretty well. It fits, first and foremost. I know there are some things that could have been executed better. By biggest thing I wish I could've fixed was the deep pleat. The final length of the kilt fabric ended up being a little under 7 yards. Unfortunately, I had cut off a full sett's worth, thinking I would need this for flashes and buckles (not knowing at the time that the cut out pleats serve this purpose). When all said and done, in order to maintain my center stripe/back and keep all 19 pleats, the deep pleat had to be what you see below in the pics.

The pleats by far were the most laborious. I had to redo them after stitching them all down because my fell line was about an 1" off. Being that I used a handwoven cloth, there are inevitably inconsistencies among the setts. Uneven tension in the warp and uneven beating can throw off the sett size. Almost all setts came to 8.25", but there are a few that are a tad bit bigger. Since I pleated to the sett, the sett size differences didn't really have a huge impact. What became the most complicated part of the pleats was figuring out the pleat size - 8 pleats per sett at 2.6cm (sorry to convert to metric - it was just much easier to work with mm for the pleats) and the hip split for the pleat was 19.5". While this sounds easy enough, it made keeping the prominent stripes centered very difficult. Thus, I had to add a couple of mm here and there for certain pleats. Sure, not all pleats are exactly even but to the lay person I doubt one would notice.

So here's the final product!

Kilt - Inside.jpg

Apron Edge.jpg

Apron Edge:Pleats.jpg

Deep Pleat.jpg

Apron.jpg

Pleats.jpg

I know there is a wealth of knowledge on this forum and I'd love to hear feedback/suggestions!

**StevenG** · 10th February 17, 08:41 PM

Welcome to the forum, and well done on the tartan/kilt fabrication.

**MacGumerait** · 10th February 17, 11:00 PM

Wow ! That's impressive , weaving your own tartan and making your own kilt .... good job on both .

**figheadair** · 11th February 17, 03:39 AM

Nice job. Hard to tell from the pictures but did you opt for black in place of the usual green?

**fflex** · 11th February 17, 04:45 AM

Respect!!!

**Liam** · 11th February 17, 08:25 AM

Wow!..... welcome to the forum.

**macleaniii** · 11th February 17, 09:12 AM

Originally Posted by figheadair

Nice job. Hard to tell from the pictures but did you opt for black in place of the usual green?

Thanks. I see what you mean...it does look black, but it's just very dark green. The black stripe adjacent to the green is hard to distinguish even up close.

Here's a pic I edited to show the distinction
IMG_0441.jpg

**figheadair** · 11th February 17, 10:45 AM

Originally Posted by macleaniii

Thanks. I see what you mean...it does look black, but it's just very dark green. The black stripe adjacent to the green is hard to distinguish even up close.

Here's a pic I edited to show the distinction
IMG_0441.jpg

Got it. Nice job.