Stillwater Kilts

[SingleBarrelBourbon]

I have a SWK Nightstalker that was too long. My lovely wife who is an accomplished seamstress, she specializes in bridals and such as that, hemmed it for me. Because of the pleats and not wanting the stitching to show, she hemmed it by hand. The only way I know it was hemmed is that it is almost two inches shorter now.

When you take it to someone, make sure they understand what you want. If it is machine hemmed, the stitching may be too tight and pucker the edges of the pleats. It may cost a little more to have the hemming done by hand, but it is worth it. Any seamstress with even a little pride in her work would not want to let something out of the door that reflects badly upon her skill.

[Heath]

i had one of my el-cheapo kilts shortened by a friends mother. she is not a professional seamstress, but most like could be if she wanted to. she did a killer job, and used the serger (surger?) instead of making a hem at the bottom. it keeps the bottom of the kilt from looking too fat and also helps keep the pleats flatter since there isn't another thickness of material folded up and sewed.

[Mike S]

The proper way to do this is not to take it up from the bottom hem line, but to remove the top binding, remove the excess material from the top of the kilt, and resew the top binding back on.
Any competent seamstress/tailor should be able to do this if explained in this manner.

[switchblade5984]

you could always wear it higher!

[turpin]

The proper way to do this is not to take it up from the bottom hem line, but to remove the top binding, remove the excess material from the top of the kilt, and resew the top binding back on.
Any competent seamstress/tailor should be able to do this if explained in this manner.

Don't you then have to sew the pleats down further as well, to get the correct fell length?

[Mike S]

Don't you then have to sew the pleats down further as well, to get the correct fell length?

That depends on how much you need to remove off of the top. With just an inch or two, I really don't think it is vital to do so, but not a big deal to go ahead and sew them down an inch or so further down at the bottom.

I'd also HIGHLY recommend that one should go ahead and cut out the interior pleats where they are sewn down, as is done on a bespoke kilt, while you have the top binding removed. I did that on my Stillwater Heavyweight wool Black Watch, and it makes all the difference in the world.

If you do this, you'll need to add a canvas liner between the interior pleats and the black liner, and tack the whole canvas piece down to the pleated area to provide support to that area and take some of the weight off of the pleat stitching. This is then fastened securely at the top along with the black cloth liner at the waistband, and enclosed between the top binding.

[Blu (Ontario)]

.... I'd also HIGHLY recommend that one should go ahead and cut out the interior pleats where they are sewn down... If you do this, you'll need to add a canvas liner between the interior pleats and the black liner, and tack the whole canvas piece down to the pleated area... etc...

This is getting into the realm of the traditional kiltmaker. If the tailor is unfamiliar with kilts, Barb T.'s book explains all in considerable detail.

What Mike is saying is that you can't just hack out the interior pleats because the kilt will start to pull apart. It required that addition of interior reinforcing.

AS far as hemming is concerned... don't throw out that option yet. I had this done on my Xmarks kilt and, while not my prefered option, it actually improves the swing of the kilt where lighter fabric has been used.

For the sake of a couple of inches, I'd just be inclined to try to wear the kilt a bit higher on the waist.

.

[Riverkilt]

Sounds like Jerry has an untapped market out there...maybe adding just one more length, say 22", would bring in a lot of us who are the wrong height to wear the standard 24"

Ron