Taking on the X-Kilt

[ScottEPooh]

Well, I've talked about it for some time now, so I have finally begun an X-Kilt. I found a really nice courdoroy (sp?) material at my local fabric store, was able to get 5 yards for about $25 USD. It's a really deep green, and I think it'll make a nice kilt. It doesn't have the "standard" courdoroy "stripes", but it is pretty heavy, so I'll have no problem with wind gusts. I have measured and cut the fabric, and will probably chalk out the pleats tonight, which brings me to a question. Following the math outlined in the directions, I am going to have 14 3" pleats with an 11" apron. Is this too many? Is there such a thing as too many pleats?

[BEEDEE]

Since the x-kilt has a narrow apron, the pleats come around on the sides. My X-kilt has 12 pleats, but I widened the apron to 12". My other box pleat made on the X-kilt model but with a standard 21" apron has only 9 x 3.5" pleats. An easy check - 14x3 = 41+11 = 53. Is that your rump measurement?

Brian

Hope this helps

[Alan H]

What BeeDee said... you want the distance taken pu by the pleats, plus the width of the apron to equal your hip/rump measurement.

A thought....narrow that apron by three inches and make a narrower over-apron, OR widen that apron to half of your hip measurement (plus or minus an inch or two) and do the rest in pleats.

[ScottEPooh]

Hey Alan,

By "hip measurement", do you mean the waist measuremeent or the rump measurement? And yes, 53" is my rump measurement. (Just to not confuse everyone, 14x3=42, and 42+11=53) So do you think my best bet would be to narrow the apron to 8" and make 15 pleats, or should I widen the apron?

[BEEDEE]

I have a 51 rump so would recommend that you do not narrow the apron. 11 or 12 inches seems about right for us who are more substantial. Here's a look at a 12 inch apron on an X-kilt



Brian

[ScottEPooh]

Ah, groovy, thanks for the pic mate! That really helps make my decision. I think you're right, too narrow would look all wrong.

[Alan H]

Ah, groovy, thanks for the pic mate! That really helps make my decision. I think you're right, too narrow would look all wrong.

Now that I"ve made a few of these and seen about 6-8 in person, I would do only one thing differently. I would not do an intermediate-width apron. It would either be about as wide as a Utilikilt....which is 6-7-8 inches or I would go full-width, like a Traditional or a Freedom kilt. Here's My X-Kilt



compare the width of that apron to BeeDee's above, or this picture of X-Kilt prototype #3


The Camouflage X-Kilt apron is much narrower. I will say that if you do this, you MUST make the forward-facing pleat folds of the first and last pleats very deep. I'd make them a full three inches deep, don't make them 1.25 or 1.5 inches. The first and last pleat folds on that camo kilt are three inches deep and I still have a little bit of an issue with th eone on the right staying shut. I sewed down the inside fold last week, and that helped. All th eother inside folds are just pressed.


Now, R-Kilts make an intermediate-width apron and they look good, and Thomsec's X-kilts look GREAT, but this is just my thinking. You can make your apron any width that you want.

[Pleater]

Possibly the pleats which are drifting open need to be slightly lifted at the waist to pull them shut.

I think it depends on just where the last pleat falls on the curve of the body which determines if it can lie flat or not without a bit of tweaking of the grain line.

The easiest cure is to sew down the free edge of the pleats slightly above the rest, so a triangle of double fabric then needs to be smoothed down over the raw edge of the waistline and is covered over by the waist band.

This will pull the pleat forward, so you might simply transfer the problem to the next pleat back. The smallest lift which will do the job is advisable, otherwise you need slightly more fabric in the kilt and a lot of gathering and pressing the waist in to narrow the kilt as much as possible above the hips.