How much cloth do I need?...my answer

[Alan H]

I sense some confusion about how much cloth people need to make a kilt, as I read the current X-Marks Tartan thread. I'm going to go through the process that I do, when I figure out how much cloth I'm going to need and how big the pleats are going to be. NOTE: This is for KNIFE-PLEATED kilts!

Step 1: Measure yourself. Better, have a friend measure you. Measure yourself about an inch above the navel, and then at the biggest part of your rump. DO NOT CHEAT.

My measurements are: waist 41...Rump 48 inches.

Step 2: Split those in half. A kiltmaker will in fact change these numbers a little bit, but we want to just ESTIMATE, right? I'll call this "rough splits"

My rough splits: waist 20.5....Rump 24 inches.

Step 3: Focus on the rump....for now, forget the waist measurement. You are going to cover that rump measurement with pleated tartan. For me, I'm going to cover me rump of 24 inches with pleated tartan.

Step 4: Remember, for that traditional look you want pleats that reveal about an inch to about 5/8 of an inch wide. If you're a "big guy" then an inch is pretty good. 3/4 of an inch is a bit better. A REALLY big guy is fine with an inch. Smaller than that....nope, no need. If you're a smallish guy, then 3/4 of an inch is significantly "better" than 1-inch. You could go to 5/8, but I wouldn't recommend going any narrower than that. ....OK so how wide do you want your pleat reveals to be?

For Me, personally I like 1-inch reveals. for one thing, it makes the math easier! 3/4 of an inch would look even classier, I expect. They looked good on Piper Georges kilt, but then those little reveals mean more pleats and that eats up tartan and tartan is money. YOU decide.

Step 5: OK, so this is ROUGH, now....but I have a 24 inch rump "rough split" right? I'm going to cover that with tartan pleated so that there's a 1 inch reveal. That means there's going to be 24 pleats around my backside, yes? If I had wanted 3/4 inch reveals then I'd have 32 pleats. Do you follow that?
For this example I'm going to use 1-inch reveals, but you do your own example with pleat reveals that you want. Remember that for that "traditional look" you want pleat reveals between 1 inch at the largest and 5/8 at the smallest.

Step 6: OK, so I'm going to have roughly 24 pleats around my backside, right? Let's pretend that the tartan sett is 6 inches. (The X-marks tartan sett is a bit bigger than that. I just measured mine and it's 6 3/8 inches.). Well, if I assume one sett per pleat, which is right, then:

24 setts x 6 inches per sett = 144 inches, which equals 12 feet, or four yards.

I will be using four yards of this tartan to cover me rumpside with pleats.

Step 7: For a guy my size, I know that I will use roughly a yard of tartan for the over-apron and the deep pleat, and another yard for the reverse pleat and the under-apron. If you are small....say a butt/hip measurement under 36, then you might use 3/4 of a yard. If you are a seriously big guy with a butt/hip measurement over 54 then you might use 1.25 yards.


Step 8: Add it up.

pleats: 4 yards
under-apron: 1 yard
Over-apron: 1 yard

TOTAL: 6 yards.

And that is why I usually make myself 6 yard kilts.

Now, you do the exact same process with your measurements and your desired pleat reveals and sett sizes to estimate how much tartan you need to buy for your next kilt.

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If I wanted 3/4 inch reveals then....

24 inch rump...3/4 inch reveals, means 32 pleats

32 pleats x 6 inch sett = 192 inches of cloth...or 5 1/3 yards

Add in one yard for the over-apron and one yard for the under apron and I get 7 1/3 yards....Thus I'd buy 4 yards of double-width cloth and have a bit left over since you usually (not always) can't buy cloth in anything less than half-yard fractions. Besides, it's good to have a bit extra anyway, just in case.

I would call that an "eight yard kilt" though in fact it REALLY has 7 1/3 yards of fabric in it.

I hope this is helpful...

[cacunn]

This is good information, could you give some guidelines for those of us that either have no rump or excess waist. For example 56 waist 51 rump. Do you pleat for the rump and instead of tapering to the waist spread to the waist?

I'm losing weight but I think the new president will be running for a second term before rump is greater than waist.

[McMurdo]

Thanks Alan, that is great information.

[Panache]

I was going to pm you or w2f with this very question (about that very tartan) so I appreciate the information.

Cheers

[Alan H]

This is good information, could you give some guidelines for those of us that either have no rump or excess waist. For example 56 waist 51 rump. Do you pleat for the rump and instead of tapering to the waist spread to the waist?

Having never made a kilt like that, I'm going to default to the REAL pro's, like Barb and Steve and Rocky. PM them, as they might miss this thread.

I think Steve from Freedom Kilts would actually build a Freedom Kilt with "slope" for a body shape like this. That means that the kilt sits lower than navel level, and actually slopes downwards, forward from hips to the median line below the waist. Thus it sits "below" most of the storage unit, up front....but you don't do that with a traditional kilt..

[Robinhood]

Rather than take the greater of either waist or hip measurement
and dividing it by two, I measure around the back of the hips
from where I want my pleats to start and end. This tells me
exactly how much fabric will be in the pleats, which is more than
going by half the total measurement. By the way, my waist is
the same size as my hips, but I still have a taper in the pleats
from the hips to waist. This is because my waist sticks out
the front, not the back.

[cacunn]

I have a severely rump challenged but there is a slight bump there. I was thinking about backing up to a wall and have the distance between the wall and the where the top of the kilt would be and use this as the taper. I'll have to play with it.

[The Wizard of BC]

Alan,

Your post on the "Slope" I use is slightly misleading in that I don't slope after the fact.

When ordering a Freedom Kilt the customer decides where the waistband should be Any slope present in his shape is then measured and accounted for during the construction.

If the customer wishes to wear his kilt at full, traditional, height there may be very little slope and therefore the waistband may not dip below the naval.

The slope measurement I ask for is only there to account for the natural shape of humans and not a "standard" or set figure.

I have found that by sloping the waist the kilt will not develop the unsightly pucker in the front apron. This slope is more prominant when the kilt is worn lower, and less prominant the higher it is worn.

To illustrate this, wrap a bath towel around yourself where it naturally wants to ride and where you wish to wear your kilt. Then turn sideways to a mirror. If the towel takes a natural position that is higher in the back and lower in the front, This Is Slope.

[The Wizard of BC]

And please remember that Alan's method of determining the amount of fabric is what you should use if you are using Tartan fabric. Depth of pleat will be determined by the Sett of the Tartan.

If you are using solid fabric, you set the Sett size. So a solid kilt may have a totally differant amount of fabric that one of Tartan.

Knowing the Sett size is not critical when ordering your fabric only when making the kilt.

[The Wizard of BC]

cacunn,

Kilts are never built smaller in the hip than in the waist.

If your waist measurement seems to be smaller than your hip there may, and I stress, may, be a problem with how you are measuring.

When measuring for your hips remember that the aprons should fall vertically from your waist in the front. So if your belly sticks out some, take that into account when measuring. Pass the tape measure around the back side of your hips and then you will need to hold it away from your front to simulate where the apron will hang to.

The only case where you will have no taper is if you can back up to a wall and your spine, at the kidney area, touches before your butt.
If your butt touches first, then there will be taper.

In fact that gives me a neat idea --- If you are a "gentleman of substance", When measuring your hip, stand with your belly touching a wall and measure around your hips and hold the tape measure out till, in the front, it also touches the wall. Voila, instant apron simulation.

It is the larger, hip measurement that is used to determine the amount of fabric. So "measure twice, cut once".