Self-made kilts

[Jeremiah]

Thanks, I'll check it out. Have you ever put pockets in a kilt or anything like that?

[Southern Breeze]

There is a TON of info on kiltmaking here. I've made two and it's not "too" hard. Good luck.

[Pleater]

It is really easy, you just need to know a few different stitches, be able to do a bit of maths so you can work out the number and spacing of the pleats, and fold cloth in straight lines along a thread.

It helps if you have a couple of bags of safety pins and a tape measure, a flat surface to measure on, a steam iron and ironing board. I use quilters pins and fabric marking pencils when measuring plain fabrics - and a long ruler rather than a tape measure. With a patterned fabric you can use the pattern rather than measuring.

The type of cloth used for traditional kilts seems very forgiving, you can, apparently, hand sew a kilt, wear it a while, then take it apart, iron the creases out and start again, and there is little evidence the cloth has ever been worked on. Finer cloth would have needle marks. I have made make multiple adjustments and alterations and put in tacking and basting threads to help with the folding and holding of the cloth, and as long as the threads do not get pulled awry nor any thread in the cloth is cut, all will be well.

If you use a cloth with man made fibre in it can be damaged by using the iron too hot, giving it a hard, melted edge rather than a crisp pleat, or a permanently polished look again by melting the fibres - but that is just something you learn with a bit of practice on spare bits of the cloth.

[bubba]

Thanks, I'll check it out. Have you ever put pockets in a kilt or anything like that?

No, I made all mine on a more traditional model.

[The Wizard of BC]

Pockets are my passion.

I think every kilt should have pockets. Traditional and Contemporary. Even my X Marks Tartan kilt has side slash and rear welt pockets.

And no I'm not a trained tailor. I figured it out as I went along. Probably took ten kilts till I got one I was satisfied with.

Start with Barb's book if you are going to do a hand sewn traditional.

If you want to do a Contemporary, just ask. I don't know it all, but I'll help where I can.

[auld argonian]

Pretty funny...I do miss pockets on the kilts but everyone observes that I have my hands in my pockets most of the time. It's just one of those habits that one gets into. My dad told me when I played ball back in High School that he was happy that basketball shorts didn't have pockets or I'd be standing there on the court with my hands in them.

Maybe one pocket would be a blessing because I still can't get a good level of organization going in the sporran. We've discussed the possibilities of auxilliary sporrans and pouches before and I figured that I'd just find a leather belt pouch of the flat variety and find a comfortable spot to keep it on the belt.

Best

AA

[Jeremiah]

Pockets are my passion.

I think every kilt should have pockets. Traditional and Contemporary. Even my X Marks Tartan kilt has side slash and rear welt pockets.

And no I'm not a trained tailor. I figured it out as I went along. Probably took ten kilts till I got one I was satisfied with.

Start with Barb's book if you are going to do a hand sewn traditional.

If you want to do a Contemporary, just ask. I don't know it all, but I'll help where I can.

I think I want to start with contemporary, as it seems it would be easier to not have to line up the pattern. The first thing I want to try is to add pockets to my camo Sportkilt. Anything I should consider before I give it a shot?

[Pleater]

I think I want to start with contemporary, as it seems it would be easier to not have to line up the pattern. The first thing I want to try is to add pockets to my camo Sportkilt. Anything I should consider before I give it a shot?

To get the pleats to hang straight you have to get the folds on the straight of the material, that is following a single thread of the fabric. If the fabric is skewed - it can be twisted by being wound into a bolt at an angle, it needs to be pulled straight, gently, before you start to work on it.

It is actually much easier if there is something you can follow, such as a different colour thread, otherwise you need to measure and fold and check at several points.

I think if I had tried to use the fabric I am trying to work on now as a first kilt I would have given up - as the weave is not even. Measuring along the selvage and following a thread up to the waist gives me odd sized pleats at the waist, even though they are equal at the bottom. Also the fabric is stretching, so I will have to sew reinforcement into the waistband.

The frst two kilts I made were patterned and so there was no doubt about where the line of the pleat should fall or where is should be sewn down.

Before cutting your Sports kilt try fastening the pocket in place either tack it or pin it, put a few things into the pocket and walk around a bit to see how it works in that position. Take a look in a full length mirror to check if and where it bulges, and if it stays with you or swings madly at every step.

[The Wizard of BC]

While it may seem that without a tartan pattern to use as a guide it would be easier to make a Contemporary kilt, I would caution anyone from thinking they are easier than a traditional kilt.

If my kilts were made like a machine sewn Tartan kilt it would take about a day to a day and a half per kilt to complete one. (At least I know Rocky can do one that fast when he is under the gun)

But when you have to do all the things to a contemporary that you don't do to a Traditional or Casual such as; stitch the hem, stitch each pleat inside and out, and do the steeking line, insert side slash pockets, insert rear welt pockets, slope the waist, add beltloops, add a waistband and do buttonholes and buttons, all without a pattern to follow. It takes me on average three-8hour days to finish one.

You must still insure your pleats are dead-on straight, parallel and not curl. The hem must still be perfectly level and horizontal. The aprons must still hang without puckering and curling. The size must still be correct. And doing all this with a fabric that is much less forgiving than wool.

A full hand-sewn Tank is a work of art. A Good Contemporary almost approaches that effort. I havent found a way yet to mass produce my kilts. Each one is different and each one is made with a thought to those hand-sewn masterpieces that I strive to emulate.

Simply adding a pocket to a sport kilt style kilt should be fairly easy. As long as you have done some tailoring and you understand how a pocket should be made in a good pair of trousers.

I encourage everyone to at least try to make their own kit. At least once. (That's why I am trying so hard to write the *##% book)

If you have an idea where and how you want to add your pocket, I will be happy to answer specific questions. But a Sport style kilt is little more than a gathered piece of cloth. Ask yourself if it is worth the effort. Or would a belt pouch work just as well and cost you fewer gray hairs and worry lines.

[Pleater]

Another thing to get hold of is a seam ripper - I just took the latest kilt back to the straight cloth - it really really helps to measure out the right number of inches between the folds. The seam ripper helps with cutting just the stitches and not the cloth.

I usually manage the ideal of 'measure twice and sew once' but this is proving to be a trial of patience and determination. It is the second kilt on which I have made an error in the measuring - maybe I'm just not concentrating.

The main problem for me is trying to get the time to make things - snatching a few minutes here and there throughout the day is obviously not the ideal method for getting things right the first time.