New x-kilt maker question

[offKilter]

I stumbled onto this site while looking for an alternative to a utilikilt, and found the x-kilt plans.
They were exactly what I was looking for, and I've now almost completed my first x-kilt!
All of the instructions made good sense to me, exept for one.
I have never made or worn a real kilt before, so I am unfamiliar with how the pleats are suppose to work.

Page 25 has the text (my comments in red):
Take the kilt to the ironing board and open up that deep reverse pleat that lies under the over-apron. [okay, so now the reverse pleat points towards the center of the over apron] Fold back about 2.5 – 3 inches, down at the hem, and make a nice even fold on that deep pleat all the way up to the waistband. [so now the pleat has a new edge that lies under the left edge of the over apron] It will get deeper as you approach the waistband, OK?….only 2.5 inches deep at the hem, but nearly 5 inches deep at the waistband.

I'm confused. Does that mean that I'm supposed to wind up with an accordian pleat at the left edge of my over apron? In other words, my over apron left edge is a pleat, with another pleat edge directly under it?
I've searched through these forums and found that many people just make one big pleat. Can anyone verify how this piece works?
Thanks in advance for any/all help.

Kent

[Pleater]

I think this is the shaping of the edge of the apron and it is creating another pleat which is altering the folded edge of the apron from the vertical to a non right angled shape. A trapezoid?

You would get two folds together running down the edge of the apron, and behind them is the deep pleat.

It is something akin to a dart in ordinary dress making, but like all things to do with making a kilt is is bigger, longer and takes up more fabric.

You might be glad of all that extra fabric when sitting down as it means that the aprons drop down between your knees.

[Alan H]

Seesh, I wrote those instructions and now I don't know what I meant.

Look at it this way...Under the over-apron is one deep knife pleat. That's pretty straightforward. That's the "reverse pleat". Make sure you put that in.

The forward-facing "pleat" of the first box-pleat (this is on the left side of your body) should be extra-deep by an inch or two, if you can possibly make it so. The kilt will lie better if you do this. The same goes for the forward-facing fold of the LAST box-pleat (over on the right side of your body). All the other folds/pleats can be standard depth.

If it's too late in the process to make these folds/pleats extra deep, don't stress. The kilt will work just fine with the standard depth.

BTW, you WILL show pics of the kilt when you're done with it, right? **grinning, here**

[turpin]

And welcome to X-Marks the Scot, offKilter.

[offKilter]

Hmmm...Well, I made the 1st and last pleats look just like all the rest, with the 1.25 depth on the apron side of each.
I can now see how adding some depth would make them hang a bit better.
My (mis)understanding of the "fold the underpleat back" gave me a double left edge to my apron pleat. It goes back, then forward, then back again.
BUT the beauty of all of this is that I can just rip it out and fix the thing. It did seem to me that the big underpleat was awfully deep, but adding some of that length to pleat #1 would take care of that.
My x-kilt is made from dark blue cotton twill, and will have pockets...though I haven't made the pockets yet.
I'm at the "add beltloops" phase, and yes, I will post some pics when I get this finished.
I'm making this for a week-long camping trip with my extended family. I can NOT wait to see the reactions I get.

Kent

[offKilter]

Ah, yes! Thank you Alan H!!!
MUCH better. I took Alan's suggestion and put the under apron pleat back the way it was originally, and added an extra 2 inches of material to the first box pleat.
Then I did the same to the final pleat and stitched the pleat edges (for first and last) about 2/3 of the way up to sharpen their edges.
My x-kilt does now hang much better.
I didn't have to rip that much out to fix it, just the first and last 10 inches of waistband.
Now to put some pockets on this thing...

Thanks for all the input! I'll get some pictures up as soon as I get the pockets figured out.

OffKilter

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

Welcome to the forum! Pics are a must, you know.

We seem to be attracting a lot with the X-Kilt instructions. I think it's time to start a new one!

Be well,

[Alan H]

Ah, yes! Thank you Alan H!!!
MUCH better. I took Alan's suggestion and put the under apron pleat back the way it was originally, and added an extra 2 inches of material to the first box pleat.
Then I did the same to the final pleat and stitched the pleat edges (for first and last) about 2/3 of the way up to sharpen their edges.
My x-kilt does now hang much better.
I didn't have to rip that much out to fix it, just the first and last 10 inches of waistband.
Now to put some pockets on this thing...

Thanks for all the input! I'll get some pictures up as soon as I get the pockets figured out.

OffKilter

Excellent!

I am slowly working my way up to making an X-Kilt for myself....finally...and I will make those "forward-facing pleats" extra deep, too. I'm glad it worked out for you and wasn't too much labor to move the extra material around. You HAD the extramaterial to work into the first box pleat because of the "misunderstanding" (or whatever it was) of the under-apron pleat. Sometimes karma DOES work out!

On the flip side, I've recently seen Thomsec's two X-Kilts, made without extra material in those two forward-facing folds and his X-Kilts look absolutely superb.

[offKilter]

Actually, the "extra" material I had was from my misinterpretation of the layout in the x-kilt directions. The allowance for the under apron is 12 inches, and then there's the inner fold of the first pleat, which is 3 inches. gives you 15 inches of material to work with.
What I did wrong was to use the 3 inch pleat line (in between the under apron pleat and pleat 1) for the line-up edge of the first pleat...that gave me a regular depth (1.5 in and 1.5 in) forward-facing pleat, and that left me with a LOT of under apron material...which is what led me to this forum.
Once you helped me figure out that the first forward-facing pleat is the full 3 inches (not half of that), that took care of the extra material of the under apron pleat.
Fortunately I made the under apron long enough to reach my left hip bone, so when I fixed everything I still had enough "modesty" cover.
So the layout of the plans are fine...I just got the first and last pleats wrong.
Got my pockets done! Just need to get them attached.
I'm very happy with the way my x-kilt came out. We'll see how it looks after I run it through the wash.

OffKilter

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

You've had time to wash it by now! Where are the pictures?

Be well,