X-Marks "Cheerleader" Skirt

[Pour1Malt]

aff tae a guid start....

luekin' forward tae maire piccies!

guid oan ya lass

[way2fractious]

It took me a minute to figure this out, but now I'm getting everything but the Pleat to sett. I THINK this means that you want actual setts to show along the fell, and you'll taper from there to the waist. So the only place the olid color stuff will show is below the fell inside the box pleats? Tricky! You'll want to arrange as much taper as possible in the general "no stripe" blue area, I'm thinking.

Judging from her markings, there will be only two kinds of "reveals", the wide white stripe and the yellow stripe with its accompanying gray stripes. The "sett" at the hip line will have a much-abbreviated blue field.

Also, since the yellow stripe panel will not have much blue background to begin with, virtually all of the tapering will likely take place on the white stripe panel (every second panel) to prevent "losing" gray stripes.

Hmmm... thinking about it. If the "losing" of gray stripes in the tapers was done with exactness, there could be a very interesting pattern of upward-pointing arrows.

[Alan H]

Judging from her markings, there will be only two kinds of "reveals", the wide white stripe and the yellow stripe with its accompanying gray stripes. The "sett" at the hip line will have a much-abbreviated blue field.

Also, since the yellow stripe panel will not have much blue background to begin with, virtually all of the tapering will likely take place on the white stripe panel (every second panel) to prevent "losing" gray stripes.

Hmmm... thinking about it. If the "losing" of gray stripes in the tapers was done with exactness, there could be a very interesting pattern of upward-pointing arrows.

OK, I've thought about this for five minutes and you have a more vibrant imagination than I do! Maybe if I had the fabric in my hand....hmmm.

You're right about the tapering taking place in the panel with the white stripe, though. I'd sure do it that way.

[way2fractious]

Maybe if I had the fabric in my hand....hmmm.

The best way appears to be putting all the taper in the white stripe panels; another is to taper all panels evenly.

The third way (the one I was referring to earlier) is to "lose" the gray stripes in the yellow stripe panel. Here is a digital rendering of the idea of upward-pointing arrows. Now that I've seen it, it's probably not a good way to do this particular project.




Hope that helps.

p.s. You are supposed to be resting and meditating in preparation for tomorrow's heavy athletic events so you can do us proud. Stay off the forum, and quit thinking about tartans and stripes!

[CameronTaylor]

Jeez Alan, I knew what she was gonna do, even from down here (that and she told me last kilt I was up for beer&time night ...), Sounds like a cool project.
I was thinking of doing the opposite way like Alan said though on one of mine.


CT - more pics, more beer

[Arlen]

Can't wait to see how it all turns out.

[cloves]

hey F-H.C.A.G. .......uhm......it's been days since an update.....we're all waiting......

[The F-H.C.A.G.]

Sorry guys, life's been crazy. Yesterday I worked 13 hours without a break, today we had to attend a Derby party and a combo Cinco de Mayo/birthday party, my mother has come down to stay with us, and tomorrow is my son's seventh birthday party. Color me frazzled!

I'll keep you posted, but I'm not likely to even start cutting the fabric until Thursday or Friday. My brain has already started in on the next project though!


Be well,

[The F-H.C.A.G.]

I finally found time to cut fabric today, but then I had to go into work for 3 hours, so I was not able to actually sew anything together-that's going to be a bit complicated, as you will see tomorrow (hopefully).

Since everything has been rolled up in my closet, I had to iron the fabric again, then I used a good solid straight edge to help me mark things out.



I am using regular chalk, and I realize, since I am using wool tartan, I'm not going to be able to throw this in the washing machine afterwards, but it wipes off pretty well. Here, I'm marking the tartan-the way things will work out, it will look pleated to the sett, except that the sett will be narrowed (seams will use some of the dark blue solid portion) with a white stripe alternating with a yellow stripe on each successive pleat.



Once I had marked, I cut out all of my pieces: apron, underapron, deep pleat (under the apron), inner pleats and outer pleats, saved a strip for the waistband and another for the fringed edge of the apron. In order to be sure I aligned everything right, I pinned labels on each piece, or groups of pieces.



In the above picture, we are looking at the outside of the skirt-the top away from us, the right side is the apron edge and the left is the under apron (this will open to the left, since it is technically a skirt, not a kilt). Each of the tags has arrows pointing up, down, left, right, as I am ultraparanoid of losing track of which piece goes which way.

This picture may show the tags better (or may not)



That's all for today. The boy must go to piano class now. I may or may not sew some tonight, but likely will not post until tomorrow.

Be well,

[Alan H]

Remember, measure eighteen times, figure on scratch paper twelve times, mark nine times, erase eight times and re-mark, cut once.

Sew twice.

.......and drink a lot.

This is gonna look COOL.