X-Marks Tartan for My Son

**Dreadbelly** · 9th February 07, 02:54 PM

A free drink from any XMarker she meets? I dunno.

**Tartan Hiker** · 9th February 07, 03:30 PM

Originally Posted by Dreadbelly

A free drink from any XMarker she meets?

You can count me in on that one!!

**The F-H.C.A.G.** · 9th February 07, 04:50 PM

Originally Posted by Dreadbelly

A free drink from any XMarker she meets?...

Originally Posted by Tartan Hiker

You can count me in on that one!!

I knew I liked you guys for a reason! That's two drinks...Next! That reminds me of a redhead joke...maybe another time. I have more pictures-remember I said I would post the set-backs as well as progress? Well, here goes.

Sewing up the inner edges of the pleats

A close up of the pleats-it's hard to see well, the line of stitching

This shows the difference between the sewn pleats and those that are not-note how the pleats on the right lay flat and the others kind of stick out

Sewing down the pleats-starting from the waist line and proceeding down-don't do it this way!

Because if you do it this way, the pattern does not quite line up-partly because of how the foot of the sewing machine pushes the fabric-this picture does not show it well-it was much more glaring "in person". Also, when I tried it against Sinbad, it turned out I had sewn down too far anyway

So, here I am ripping out the sewn down pleats. Next time I will sew from the bottom up, more slowly, and possibly by hand-tomorrow, though, not today

So, how about those drinks?

Be well,

**way2fractious** · 9th February 07, 05:33 PM

Originally Posted by The F-H.C.A.G.

I knew I liked you guys for a reason! That's two drinks...Next! That reminds me of a redhead joke...maybe another time.
...
So, how about those drinks?

O.K.! We'll start with tonight when we meet up with visiting XMarker, mkmound, in Los Gatos in a couple hours. You can practice the redhead joke on us in a convivial setting.

Regarding those sewn down pleats - your picture shows a perfect example of what's called "stair-stepping." But take some credit, because the "steps" were exactly and consistently off, which means that your technique is consistent.

Now all that needs to be done is to offset one pleat against the other by exactly that distance in the opposite direction before sewing them down. Then after they are sewn, the stripes should match up exactly.

This pleat sewing technique - as it relates to hand stitching - is discussed in the book, The Art of Kiltmaking, but it is also applicable to machine sewing, especially with wool.