x kilt questions on pleats

[adam]

Right-- Finished!

My kilt on its inaugural 15.5 hour shift at work. The pleats aren't holding as well as I had hoped... Bad fabric choice I think. All in all, I like it though.

Good responses from most of the people I dealt with. Some of the supervisors don't think it's in dress code; my store manager didn't say anything, just shook is head in a bit of disbelief; strangers gave me good comments, and that they don't see many med around with kilts. I replied that I'm trying to change that. We laughed. My coworker asked me if he got some fabric in Black Watch of some Hunter Variant if I could make him one. I let him know that he could easily purchase a good one inexpensively online, rather than pay for the fabric and have my shoddy sewing skills ruin it.

My mother still doesn't want me going out in it. Oh well. All in all, pretty good responses.

[fluter]

Well done! That's very nice looking. Congratulations.

[Pleater]

Might I recommend spray starch?

I think it might sharpen up the pleats considerably.

That apron really wants to taper, too, but from what I can see it looks like you have started an interesting and useful sideline in the production of kilts

[adam]

Might I recommend spray starch?

I think it might sharpen up the pleats considerably.

That apron really wants to taper, too, but from what I can see it looks like you have started an interesting and useful sideline in the production of kilts

Thank you for the starch idea. I'm going to have to try that, since they seem to have a want to un-pleat themselves, especially towards the front. Mostly the first and last pleat.

What do you mean by the apron wanting to taper?

[McClef]

15.5 hours? That's a LONG shift!

But looks like the kilt was making you happy!

[Pleater]

What do you mean by the apron wanting to taper?

The underside of the under apron pleat seems to be rolling out from beneath the apron, trying to ignore the sewn fold and pushing the front of the kilt into a concave shape.

If you want to insist that it remain straight and you spot it during the construction of the kilt you can counteract it by lifting the inner fold of the pleat above the level of the waistband just a fraction, so a small triangle of the folded fabric is taken out of the top of the pleat.

With a soft fabric you can sew along the top few inches of the inner edge of the pleat and ease it in shorter, and that will so the same thing, but with a rigid fabric like cotton it is not so easy.

Once the waistband is sewn the options are reduced, and it can sometimes be easier to allow the fabric to do what it is trying to do, undo the sewing, press out the fold, then resewing the edges of the apron and under apron so the front of the kilt is a /_\ shape rather than a l_l.

The apron and under apron are actually l_\ and /_l so what is actually there
is /l_\ if you have not shaped the free edge of the apron, but the total effect is of /_\ .

It is all part of the fine art of fitting, so you get a garment which is the best (most flattering) shape for your body, and is usually achieved by very small twists and subtractions or additions so as to pull or push the fabric into apparently lying straight or in smooth, usually convex, curves when being worn.

[Alan H]

I echo what Pleater just said.

You've created a good garment there and you should be proud of it.

Now, if you want, you can move to the next step and do some little tweaks to fine-tune the fit...just like Pleater suggested.

Couple of things I'd do... sew down the INSIDE folds of the pleats, from the hem to the fell. The will help the issue of the pleats opening up, a bit.

The over-apron curl is a bit tougher. I'd a agree with Pleater. Look at it and lay it out on the kitchen table and try to figure out what the fabric is 'wanting to do". Then rip out the stitches along the side of the apron, re-pin and re-stitch. I bet you can improve that curl.

At that point, if you ask me, you'll have heck of a kilt. It's a good job, already and you'll just make it better!