F&K remnant 11 oz Poly/Wool advice?

[BEEDEE]

Check out my thread here for two kilts I made with the F&K grey-green.

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/s...ghlight=beedee

I machine sewed the knife pleat version as I am left handed and hand stitching doesn't work well when you are left handed. I wear both regularly - the box pleat is a little light and you have to take care in the wind but have not had that problem with the knife pleat. PM me if you have any other questions.

Brian

[James MacMillan]

I machine sewed the knife pleat version as I am left handed and hand stitching doesn't work well when you are left handed.

Please explain how being right or left handed makes a difference with hand sewing. My Maternal Grand Mother was left handed and she made so many things, to include a pretty nice kilt, that I can't even begin to count. All were hand sewn.

All the surviving grandchildren have many things that she made that they hold as prized possessions.

I don't sew, (other than a botton or a rip or a pair of flashes) so maybe I just don't get it?

[BEEDEE]

Please explain how being right or left handed makes a difference with hand sewing. My Maternal Grand Mother was left handed and she made so many things, to include a pretty nice kilt, that I can't even begin to count. All were hand sewn.

All the surviving grandchildren have many things that she made that they hold as prized possessions.

I don't sew, (other than a botton or a rip or a pair of flashes) so maybe I just don't get it?

I'm going from Barb Tewksbury's book The Art of Kiltmaking where she explains why hand sewing a kilt is a right handed affair. It has to do with the way you hold the pleat and make the stitch and I haven't figured a way to reverse the action.

Brian

[Pleater]

I have given up putting kilts into the washing machine, even those which are made of a machine washable fabric.

The agitation tends to wear the edges of the pleats, and the length of the fabric seems to make it likely to get damaged on the hem or edge.

This only really became apparent after a couple of years, so if you are going to make and then throw away on - say - a yearly basis fine - otherwise I'd say hand wash. I have a separate spin dryer and find that the sturdier kilts are fine in that as long as they are rolled into a cylinder and coiled around the drum. The all wool ones are rolled and squashed inside towels, mostly because they are washed upstairs and the spin dryer is downstairs, but I would put them into a pillow case or wrap them up in a bit of sheet for protection before putting them into the spinner, and for a short spin only.

Here in England - on the South coast near the sea, it is often humid, or raining, and I like to get things as dry as possible as quickly as possible. Things which are left damp for a couple of days can develop a rather musty smell.

If the fabric is really likely to fly, you could try using it double, securing the two layers together on the underside of pleats where it is not likely to show, or use a good length of fabric, lots of pleats, and sew a tape or ribbon to the edge on the inside, use a toning colour a bit darker than the overall colour of the kilt, so as to weight it down.