Pleating options and double-checking calculations for kilt-like kilted skirt

[Barb T]

I believe that the House of Edgar Mediumweight Old & Rare Clan & District Tartans are all finished with a true selvedge. I could use a ribbon to finish the inside of the waistband.

Yes - HoE medium weight tartan has a kilting selvedge. All kilting tartan of medium and heavy weight does, and many 11 oz tartans now do as well (although this is not universally true).

You could use a ribbon for the inside of the top band, but you wouldn't gain anything. A top band on a kilt is put on differently than the waist band on a skirt, and all you need to have is enough to stitch a seam at the top edge of the kilt and fold it just over the top. The lining is stitched by hand about 1/8" below to top edge of the kilt on the inside, so all you have to do is have enough tartan to come just over the top edge and about 1/4" down on the inside of the kilt (i.e., it doesn't get folded double like a waist band). So I've made do with a strip of tartan less than an inch wide for a long kilt in the past. And, on one occasion, I had a guy who was so tall that there was NOTHING left for a top band, so I used a cross-wise strip and just didn't match the tartan in the apron. It's under the belt anyway, so that's an OK last ditch resort.

And if you're making something kilt-like, and not a trad kilt, it wouldn't occur to anyone to notice that the tartan in the top band doesn't match the tartan in the apron.