I learned something from my quick-and-dirty-kilt

**Alan H** · 16th August 07, 11:14 AM

OK, here's what I learned. ...How I made this kilt.

1. Washed the cloth, cut it out, joined the halves (this was digicamo, so joining was easy, nothing to line up)

2. hemmed it

3. I measured out out the over-apron, leaving 4 inches extra on the right hand edge to fold over. I chalked in the center point and the over-apron trapezoid (straight lines for apron edges) folded the edges over and sewed them down with two lines of stitching on each side.

4. I folded under a big (for this kilt, not for a "real" kilt) under-apron pleat, and then chalked in a line perpendicular to the hem, from hem to waist. This line was right at the left-hand edge of the over apron, where that edge laid down onto the rest of the fabric. This line was a reference point from which I measured the folds of the pleats.

5. chalked in "pleat fold lines" every 4.5 inches until I had 14 pleats. I already knew that I could make 14 pleats with 1.5 inch reveals, and it'd fit the guy. I only had 3.5 yards of material, so this kilt had to have shallow pleats

6. MISTAKE #1. I now folded over the cloth and ran a line of stitching down the edges, really close to the edge, at all of the chalked-in pleat fold lines. I did them all, from hem to waistline.

WRONG! Next time I'll mark the chalk lines, but I'll just sew down the pleat edges from the hem to the bottom of the fell. I explain why, later in this post.

7. I now folded up the pleats and pinned each pleat down with a pin right at the bottom of the fell. The kilt is now lying on the floor, flat, with the folds of the pleats lying on top of one another. The edges are all parallel to one another, and there's one pin in the very edge of each pleat, at the fell, securing it to the material beneath. Looks great, so far. My mother in Law actually commented that she was stunned at how fast it was going.

8. THE BIG MISTAKE...do not do this..... To work in a bit of taper, I now overlapped each pleat at the top of the waistline, about 1/4 to 1/2 an inch more than it was at the fell. I literally just moved the cloth over a bit, and then put two pins in each edge, along the fell to hold it in place. Taking a lesson from Rocky's USA Kilts Casual model, I overlapped the two pleats that are right next to the aprons (will be at the wearers sides) quite a bit more than that. This builds in a bit more curve around the waist, which is good.

9. I then sewed all the pleats down. Thus, each pleat, above the fell shows TWO lines of stitching..... that didn't matter on this kilt, I didn't care.

I I proceeded with waistband, reverse pleat, under-apron and so on, and finished the kilt. OK, back to the mistake.

This overlapping in step 8 did not work. What happened was that the pleats on the wearers left side looked pretty good, but each pleat, proceeding from the left side 'round the wearers body to the right side, "tilted" morer and more to the right. The top of the pleat was more to the right than the bottom. Thus, the pleats "bent" at the fell, since the hanging parts of the pleats respond to gravity. It looked really wierd.

You see, when you taper pleats, you need to do them symmetrically. I learned this while tapering the box pleats of the X-kilt. Its' easy with wide box pleats. You don't have many pleats so each individual one is tapered a lot and you can see it. However, when you sew down a knife pleat from hem to waistband, you've now "locked in" one side of the pleat. The option to symmetrically taper the pleat is lost.

If I'd just overlapped/tapered the two-three pleats right next to the apron edges, like Rocky's Casual model, it probably would have been fine. But I didn't, I tapered each pleat a little bit, and the effect added up across the back of the kilt.

My solution for tapering pleats that aren't tartan, like camouflage?

A.) Next time I will sew down the edge of the pleats from hem to fell only.

B.) I'll then lay out all the pleats on the table/floor and pin the pleat folds at the fell.

C.) Next, I'll symmetrically taper each pleat, taking up a little bit from both sides of the pleat. I'll probably do 3-4-5 at a time.

D.) I'll use 3-4 pins per pleat-edge to really keep things straight and I'll topstitch down each pleat edge along the fell. I'll take care to match up the stitching so that right at the bottom of the fell, it overlaps with the stitching I used below the fell. Maybe I'll bar-tack at the bottom of the fell for strength and to hide any little mis-matches that happen.

If anyone has any insights about all this, I'd love to hear 'em!

[b]Note{/b} I partially fixed this "tilted pleats" issue when I washed the kilt t get th echalk marks out. I didn't put it in the dryer, instead I dried it in the sun, on the deck. It took about 90 miinutes to dry.

Every 15 minutes or so I'd go out and pick up the kilt. I'd grab it in my left hand, up by the waistband, at the upper left edge of the first pleat. I'd grab the lower right corner of the last pleat with my right hand and I'd give the fabric a few good, long hard pulls. I put some muscle into it, listening carefully for any signs of failing stitching or ripping mateiral.

In effect, I was stretching the wet fabric on the bias of the weave. The net effect was to re-align the "tilted pleats" a bit more towards the vertical so that when my intended new kilt-wearing "victim" put it on, most people wouldn't have noticed that much of anything was wrong. As the kilt dried, this stretch got somewhat locked into the fabric....I expect it will come right out again with the first washing.

**JimB** · 16th August 07, 12:13 PM

Do ya think that's how the "tilted kilt" got it's name?
Just wondering.....

Actually very good lessons learned...Thanks!

**Howard Clark** · 16th August 07, 07:25 PM

Sounds like a fabulous learning experience, and you have absorbed the lessons well, so it sounds to me.

Made almost all those mistakes myself !

**Rusty** · 17th August 07, 05:33 AM

Any photo's by chance ?

**The Wizard of BC** · 17th August 07, 10:44 AM

Hi Alan, Your kiltmaking abilities are awesome. Each time you post these self reviews I read them with great interest.

In this post you talk about tapering and asked if there were any other comments so I thought I would add a copy on a post I made back in March in the DIY section when this question of knife pleating came up.

Determining taper is just arithmetic.

For example if your kilt is;

42" Hip
37" Waist
16" Apron
1" Pleat Reveal

Then the pleated area in the back will be;

at the hips 42" - 16" = 26"
at the waist, 37" - 16" = 21"

At the hip = 26" and your pleats are 1" then = 26 pleats

But at the waist the measurement is 21" but still 26 pleats.

So, 21 / 26 = each pleat is .8076" at the waist. or converted to approx. 13/16"

Here is a kilt pleated and Steeked.

There are two basic methods of laying out pleats. I'll call them the Traditional and Contemporary methods just for clarity.

Here is the Traditional method

You find the center of each pleat and mark 1/2 of you taper on each side of center. 1/2 of 13/16" = 13/32". The total width of the pleat is still 13/16"

This method is what is used for Tartans. It will result in the pattern being centered in each pleat and the curve of the Fell will be an arc of a circle.

Here is the Contemporary method.

Note that in this method the edge of each pleat is a straight line. This is because most contemporary Kilts have the edges topstitched and it's much easier to do that on a straight line. Not impossible to do it with the Trad. Method but finicky.

Here is the tapering in the sewing machine.

Note that I use a ruler to lay out the width of the pleat at the waist and then a tapering jig to mark a slightly curved line from the Steeking line to the waist. This gives a very nice shape to the Fell area.
In the picture you can see one pleat finished and the next with the mark for the next sewing line.

Practice till you can mark and sew to the standard of at least 1/32". If you don't the entire waist measurement can be off 1/32" x 26 pleats = .8125 or 13/32" If you are off by 1/16" then you throw the waist off by 1 5/8" Not good.

The fault with the Contemporary method is that when you do all the tapering from one straight edge the curve formed by the Steeking line tends to become more of a french curve. Not a lot and I find it is not noticable on most kilts. But I never use the Contemporary method on Tartan.

Here is the finished taper.

**Packhound** · 17th August 07, 10:57 AM

Alan,

Your descriptions are great. I made the same mistake (#1) on my X-kilt, so it is not at neat in appearance at I would like. But I'm learning alot in the process.

Thanks again for the great info from another DIY'er.

I appreciate the skill required in making a traditional kilt all the more.

**CameronTaylor** · 20th August 07, 11:32 AM

I gotta remember to print out all thes fabulous (did I just say that?) instructions for my friend Sean, he likes the elephant kilt enough that he wants to try making his own. I told him it's easier than it sounds, 'specially with Alan's scribblings.

CT - reversing Rebecca's pleats.

**Alan H** · 20th August 07, 12:33 PM

That was mighty interesting, Steve. I'm string at your pictures, thinking that you do exactly what I did, but I wound up with "tilted pleats' and you don't.

I'm gonna have to think on this.