Camo Kilt - HELP!

[O'Neille]

I've put many a hidden pocket in the first deep pleat and the last reversed pleat. Just sew a pocket shape into them and reinforce with some bartacks. Both end up under the apron and work well for keys, tickets, change. All that stuff that ends up in the bottom of a sporran. I've made them big enough for a hand but that is overkill. I'd say just big enough for three fingers retrieving a ticket stub is ideal.

I'll probably put a small key/ticket pocket in any kilt I make from now on. Here is a link to when I did some hand sized pockets on an earlier hiking kilt. http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=20444

[Pleater]

I am thinking of making pockets on a kilt by hiding them in the under apron pleats.

A pocket bag could hang from the waist band with one half of the opening fixed to the edge of the apron and the other to the back of the pleat. I could even put a button and loop to hold it closed, hidden by the shaped edge of the apron.

I have been looking at the midnight DPM I have, and I am not convinced that it will look right cut parallel with the selvage. That is the same as the military style four colour standard and desert veriations I have. I buy any material I see that will do for a kilt. I have quite a stash now.

I will make up these fabrics the same way as the civilian three colour DPM kilt (I know the US military use a three colour DPM, but UK military stuff is usually four)

With four strips of material there is a seam at the centre back, and another within the pleats. I usually start at the outer edge of the two strips for the centre back and pleat so the edges of the strips are just slightly longer than the under piece of a pleat, any excess goes into the centre back reverse box pleat.

The outer strips are joined on to form the inner fold of the pleat. The seam makes that pleat slightly longer than the rest, but it does not show on the outsde.

You need to have the reveal of the pleat right, with the lower edge to hip measurement correct, then the supression to the waist. I try to get the two edges to match up exactly from the hip down, and then they diverge for the supression. This has not always worked and several kilts have had to have the seam undone and resewn on order to get the pleat to hang straight. This is always due to not making the reveal large enough. It just means that the outer edge is sewn on closer to the outer fold than it would be for a prefect fit. It does not show, but it falls short of perfection.

Once that is done for the first time, you can then put in the rest of the small pleats, the under apron pleat and shape the edges of the aprons. I leave the outer edge of the apron unadorned and unshaped, so it is exactly like the under apron. If you want to shape both the edges on the apron it will mean having a few more inches of material in the left side of the kilt. To cope with that the seam in the centre back should be moved to the left hand fold of the inverted box pleat, and as that pleat is usually about twice the size of a small pleat the seam for joining the outer pieces of fabric should be one pleat further from the centre back on the left than on the right side.

Making a kilt from strips is slightly more work than from a single strip, but you get more kilt from the cloth. You need to remember to take the piece for the waistband, belt loops and any other items, from the fabric before cutting the strips.