Quote Originally Posted by Kilted Taper
...I'm thinking of tackling the attempt to make a traditional kilt with the help of Barb's book. I don't want to spend a few hundred $$$'s on a nice tartan wool only to screw it up. What have other's used for their first?
It's true that the materials other than wool handle completely differently. However, if your main aim is to figure out the geometry (deep pleat, knife pleats, inverted pleat, darts, tapers, flares, etc.), then any fabric will do, and there are lots of plaids to play with. My humble suggestion is to find a piece of plaid cotton or poly and spend a few hours measuring it, sloppily stitching it together as you figure out the pleating and the various directions the fabric is folded. Just make sure the repeat is about 4-6 inches. Even if it's not wearable when you finish, the steep part of the learning curve won't break the bank. (There are a few of us that still have some partials and some complete failures laying around.) Perhaps you could view it as a rough pencil sketch of an eventual masterpiece!

Good luck. Holler with questions. If you need to shed a tear or two... get a Kleenex and tell us about it later.