Wanting to make a modern kilt, help

[McJore]

thanks a lo boB, thats pretty good advice

[Pleater]

Hello McJore

I started off making traditional knife pleated kilts and then gravitated to the reverse Kinguisse method as it is easier to move through vegetation in it - the pleats all point backwards and do not get caught up - I have even coined the term Ghillie Kinguisse for the style.

Kilts can seem to be rather daunting, but there is nothing really complex in the construction, and they are easier than most dressmaking projects.

I have made and remade my kilts as I have been losing weight, so I have minimised the amount of sewing involved, but I have learned that you do need to be precise in the construction - folds must run on the grain of the fabric, so that a single thread of the weft, or sometimes the warp, runs perfectly along the edge of the pleat, and along the edge of the waist, or the pleats will simply not lay flat. They do sometimes have to be pulled up, or allowed to drop at the inner fold, so as to bring them into line when being worn, but that is to do with the fitting. If the outer fold is not straight it will try to twist so it is straight, and the only way to hold it is to sew the edge and then sew it down to the fell. I try to avoid that and have the fabric fall straight by itself.

I have a whole range of kilts in all sorts of fibres, but I am sewing either all cotton or all wool or wool blends at the moment.

I find that the solid colours are not so easy to work with as something with a woven in guide to the grain - even a faint pin stripe is good as it gives you something to measure to.

With a solid colour I'd strongly recommend that you press in the pleats before you start, so you have tamed the fabric before you start to sew it.
Sort out the hip to hem/lower edge first. Measure, pin the outer fold at the lower edge and at the bottom of the fell - I use safety pins, put in the pins so you have only single folds and check that the grain runs exactly along the fold. Press in the fold from lower edge to the bottom of the fell if you are going to be narrowing to the waist the traditional way, where the edge of the pleat is folded under to reduce the measurement.

I make cotton kilts with the edge of the pleat straight, as it will not deform like wool and wool blends and it seems to work. I press in the fold from waist to hem and for some I then sew along the fold - it depends on how I feel about the fabric. Some I wear unpressed, so the pleat edge is not defined, others I press the pleat edge, some I sew the edge.

I make the centre back inverted pleat larger than the ones next to it. If the smaller pleats are one sett (repeat) of the pattern then the inverted pleat is two setts each side. For a kilt which sits/wears well I have the pleats over half the circumference, so the edges of the aprons run vertically from the middle of the knee upwards. The apron is wider by 4 inches at the lower edge than the top so that it gives the effect of being straight when worn.

There are large pleats under the apron so when you sit or crouch down they slide open and the aprons drop down. It is better to make the pleats slightly smaller to give yourself generous under apron pleats, and to have lots of small pleats rather than a smaller number of larger ones - particularly if you are not going to wear a sporran. More pleats seems to make the kilt less rigid, so it will have more movement, more swish when walking and more flow when sitting or stepping over obstacles. Not that everyone is likely to be climbing over rocks and stiles every day, but it does mean that if you ever have to, you can.

Putting more fabric into the front of the kilt also makes it more balanced, and it puts more layers between you and what can sometimes seem a harsh world.

[auld argonian]

There are a couple of how-to's on the WEB...after you've looked at Alan's PDF, look at those and you ought to be able to sort of synthesize a plan for a knife pleated one with all that information.

Best

AA

[McJore]

thanks guys, but i think ill make it a box pleat then for the next one maybe a knife pleat, and so on