SWK Thrifty: My review.

[Kid Cossack]

Doug:

It was something I'd been thinking about for months, and never quite got around to doing anything about. Well, finally I said enough is enough, and got out the seam ripper. One of the reasons was that, ahem, I'd bought this SWK hoping that I was losing weight, which turned out to be, well, not entirely the case.

Redoing an economy is a little harder than a thrifty-kilt, if only because the economy has the cutout for the left side strap to go through.

Interestingly enough, as I broke the kilt down, the folds/creases for the knife pleat worked out, almost exactly, to give me a pleat-to-the-sett option. I started off doing hand-stitching because I can't run a sewing machine, but then the wife took pity on me and we redid the whole thing.

We put a taper into the apron, and put in three tapers going from the hips to the waist, and reused the waistband. Today I'll sew the right waist buckle into place, and it'll be good to go.

Of course, what else happened the other day? Why, my custom sixteen ounce leatherneck from Matt Newsome arrived! (Any comparisons between the box pleat knocked out by the wife and I, and Matt's handiwork, is purely coincidental, and shows the difference between a fair job and a master craftsman.)

[James MacMillan]

Of course, what else happened the other day? Why, my custom sixteen ounce leatherneck from Matt Newsome arrived!

I am SOOOO ! Jealous and Green with envy! While I have the JarHead Tartan in several versions, I still want a Box Pleated version!

Do you think the box pleat would look well with a formal PC?

[Perldog007]

Speaking of reworking a thrifty - has anybody tried putting a hip strap/buckle on one to make it look more like a "real" kilt?

Seems to me that the velcro lies under the belt, but with a hip strap and stitching down the pleats would be hard to tell it from the real thing for the uninitiated. Even a kiltmaker might be fooled from a distance.


That is so cool that you now have a "stunt double" for your Matt Newsome Leatherneck. Happy new kilt and Happy new kilt!

[Kid Cossack]

I am SOOOO ! Jealous and Green with envy! While I have the JarHead Tartan in several versions, I still want a Box Pleated version!

Do you think the box pleat would look well with a formal PC?

I think it would! Box pleats the way Master Newsome does them up are quite nice. This one is pleated to the red stripe, and I can really tell the difference between the thirteen ounce wool (in my tweed Newsome and my leatherneck USAK) and the sixteen ounce here.