The Art of Kiltmaking Q's

[fluter]

Question: Can I rip out two pleats and re-sew them?

Answer: yes you can though you may have to rip out more than two, ...

If you haven't sewn in the waistband, you can rip out pleats at the beginning and re-sew. HOWEVER....just how HORRIBLE are they?

I too was going to suggest giving yourself a bit of charity on the first one.

If you do need to do them over, here's a hint from Herself: I was imagining how difficult it would be to re-stitch a pleat when I'd already done the subsequent ones. Barb pointed out that since I'm going to cut out the back of the pleat anyway, I could split the back down to an inch above the fell, where it will be cut out; and then get my hand in underneath to stitch!

[Carolina Kiltman]

Question: Can I rip out two pleats and re-sew them?

HOWEVER....just how HORRIBLE are they?

Keep this in mind, mad perfectionist or not, it' s your first kilt. You will make more kilts. When you strap the thing on, you can't see all the tiny little imperfections. When it's in your hand and you're sewing, every micrometer of misalignment glares out at you, whispering you SUCK as a kiltmaker in your febrile imagination. When it's on your rumpus, no such whispering goes on.

My point is that unless the first couple of pleats are REALLY bad and render the thing unwearable, you might strap it on yourself, three-quarters done and then go find a good and honest friend and ask them if it's really obvious when you wear it. If they say

"what problem with the pleats?"

or

"well yeah, I can see that it's a little bit off, OK, sure I guess, if you say so, but....."

then hang it, finish the kilt and wear the thing. The next one will be better. If they say

My GOD what have you DONE????

then you might go back and rip 'em out, eh?

It's a kilt, not a shrine. Not only that, but it's your FIRST kilt, made out of excess, inexpensive fabric. Save the mental torture for your ultimate tank.

From one perfectionist to another: I designed and built stage sets for decades! I have to confess that the night before opening, I was sure it was the lousiest, most mistake ridden design, possible for humans to produce. After a good night's sleep, a square meal and a single malt (not necessarily in that order) I would stand in the back of the house (or the sound/light/projection booth), the curtain would go up and I would see it for the first time as an audience member. My reaction would nearly always be; "damn, that's good! So unless it is a MGWHYD type of mistake, forgive yourself for being human, wear it and start on the next.

One final bit, one of my sons lives in an are rife with Quakers. The Craftsmen that do finish work will purposely make a small error (as in tile laying). Only God is perfect, and we should not try to emulate God!

[mycoleptodiscus]

Here are the pics
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44411062@N00/

I good part of why I am coming to y'all is for some clarity as I seem to have lost my mind and am not living in reality. Thanks for the good humor Alan. Mycoleptodiscus terrestris is a fungus that I worked with as a Plant Pathologist at the University of Wisconsin- Madison. I developed a method for producing spores in petri dishes so that it could be studied more easily in the lab. I am now an 8th grade science teacher

Let's see if you can make some sense of the pictures...

[Bugbear]

Hopefully Barb or one of the other kiltmakers will be able to help you, Mr. Fungus.

[SteveB]

First of all, the first kilt looks like you got a LOT right. I made my first one without reading Barb's Book (big mistake), and it has numerous "errors" - and it is a self colour to boot. I am just over 6' 1" tall, with a long torso and short legs. After four run throughs with the calculator, I sewed the thing up only to discover I had a few more pleats then I needed. I located the straps and buckles such that the two "extra" pleats disappear under the top apron. BTW, to pull it off the top apron does have a slight angle that it should not have. It is my first attempt at kiltmaking and I still strap it on quite often. Around here, I am the only one that knows what Barb's Book says about my unique kilt. Everyone that has seen it, likes it. Now with this post,it is not my little secret anymore, but then this is a kilt forum. Your height and lean build will allow for a lot of distance for the "imperfections" to simply disappear.
Now strap it on and join the rabble at a kilt friendly local liquid nourishment centre.
Welcome to XMTS
Slainte

[Mipi]

I wouldn't do anything on the pleats. They look just nice.

[ChattanCat]

Ok, the kilt may have a few errors that you will know about. It is the curse of the kiltmaker... THE first thing I would do is turn the kilt so the inside is facing up and strum the pleats... It is one of the great joys of kiltmaking! You must strum from left to right to get the right tone, did ya hear it?

[mycoleptodiscus]

Now that we've established that it really is not that bad... I AM going to fix it. I don't understand what is going on at the apron and underapron where they meet the pleats. I think that I mixed up the apron and underapron at some time so that the basting that was done to the underapron/pleat boundary should have been done to the left side of the apron? Where should the deep pleat and hidden pleat be? I think they should be on the other side of the pleats? Does the deep pleat become the inverted pleat when you fold it?

In regards to resewing the first pleat... I understand that I can split the offending pleat and it will be easier to access the seam. I hadn't thought of that Are there any other tricks or things I should kep in mind?

I would like some confirmation that I am seeing everything correctly. I have the apron and underapron labeled incorrectly in my pictures, yes?

THANKS!!!!!

[Barb T]

Hi all!

Sorry for the delayed reply. I'm in Iceland for a conference - 800 geologists have descended on Reykjavik to talk about volcanoes.

First, let me say that you did a fab job pleating the kilt and making the pleats look nice - much better than most first efforts!

I think the biggest part of the confusion comes from the fact that you have the terminology of the apron and underapron mixed up. In pic 23, you call that the apron, but it is, in fact, the underapron. And, in pic 24, you call it the underapron, but it's really the apron. I don't have my book with me, but there's a "parts" diagram somewhere near the beginning of chapter 4, and you can see which is the apron and which is the underapron.

It looks to me like you didn't put an inverted pleat into at the edge of the underapron. That's easy to fix by taking out the very last pleat and making an oversized (roughly double) pleat that you'll fold both ways into a box pleat.

The apron edge looks fine to me. I think truly that you haven't made any mistakes other than not putting an inverted pleat at the edge of the underapron. Your confusion stems solely, I think, from calling the apron the underapron and vice versa. The _construction itself_ looks fine to me.

If you decide to take out and re-stitch any of your pleats, you can slit the back of all but the first one. If you slit the back of the deep pleat next to the apron, you won't be able to alter the kilt if it needs altering.

[Carolina Kiltman]

Mycoleptodiscus, see what I mean about Barb? Isn't she wunnerful?