Discourse on inexpensive kilt material

**Alan H** · 8th November 08, 12:34 PM

I am, right now, making two kilts out of a quite lightweight PV material. The stuff is a fashion plaid, but close enough to tartan as makes no difference. It's going to turn out to be "Sportkilt weight"...aka very light. I'm working on the first one.

Now, there's nothing wrong with a light kilt, but I have got to say that this stuff is a ROYAL PITA to machine-sew. It has no structure, it bunches up under the presser foot, it distorts all over the place under the needle. I am going to have to re-sew at least half of the pleats in this kilt. So I just gave up after re-sewing one pleat THREE times. I may resort to hand sewing, which was NOT the plan. So anyway, this leads me to write:

Alan H's Amateurs Guide to INEXPENSIVE Home Kiltmaking Fabric For Dummies

Hands down, the best thing to machine-sew sew a tartan kilt out of, on the cheap is the wool/poly 11 ounce blend stuff that Fraser and Kirkbright has in their remnants section. I have made four skirts and three kilts out of this stuff and I love it. I was excited to see that they have Black Watch currently on sale, then my balloon burst when I saw that the sett size was 3 inches...too small for a kilt. When shopping their offerings, make sure to look for sett size. They currently have the Lindsay tartan in a 6-inch sett. I'm wearing a kilt I made out of this stuff right now, and even though I did this one kind of "quick and dirty" it looks pretty darned good, if you ask me.

If you can find Marton Mills PV on sale, grab it. It's also just great, but fat chance of getting it for $6-8 a yard.. har!

The best thing for making a contemporary kilt is cotton/polyester blend twill in the 8-ounce-or-so range. These are available in solid colors off of ebay or most any fabric store for under ten bucks a yard.

What else is out there?

lightweight cheap flannel from Joannes...NO NO NO NO NO NO NO don't waste your time.

Bull denim... hard to sew in a thick waistband, but makes a bulletproof kilt....that will wrinkle like CRAZY. You simply can't sit down in it for more than ten minutes. But if all you want to do is stand around in it, or you don't care if it looks like the dickens from the backside, then go for it.

Lightweight poly-viscose from Joannes, Hancock, etc. I don't like it. I'm working on it, now, and yuck. I'll make this kilt look OK because I'm careful, but I won't buy this stuff again. YUCK.

Polyester camouflage....good stuff, I've used it and I like it. Do NOT get the ripstop nylon stuff!!!! NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

Honestly, you want to make a tartan kilt on the cheap? Go look at Fraser and Kirkbright, or their USA re-sellers, The Scottish Weaver, which also has a remnants section.. Both are on-line. The 50/50 poly/wool 11 ounce material is very nice stuff, and if you use 6 yards of it or more you'll get a nice kilt with a good "swish". Beware of the cotton/poly tartans. I haven't tried one yet, but I have my doubts...I just don't know.

**Carolina Kiltman** · 8th November 08, 04:55 PM

Originally Posted by Alan H

. . . . Beware of the cotton/poly tartans. I haven't tried one yet, but I have my doubts...I just don't know.

My experience with the cotton, was with all cotton. It wrinkled like crazy, and does not keep its' colour at all well. Maybe the poly/cotton might be better, I do have dress shirts in colours that do not wrinkle excessively nor fade (much)

If you can get 9/10 oz all poly, it is decent stuff, if you don't expect it to behave like wool when you work it.

**Eric Peterson** · 8th November 08, 06:40 PM

Joannes has a poly rayon blend that I have made 5 kilts from, it is light but it holds pleats like crazy and wasn't super difficult to sew. The material was found in a local store at about $6.00 a yard, I never see it listed online. I was having trouble with the waistband and loops so I decided to re-a quire my old 1926 singer 66 that I used to do car upholstery with (28 years ago) out of my folks garage. With the singer it is actually much easier to line up the stripes on pleats. I have been searching for a wool blend like you mentioned. Thanks for the heads up.

Eric

**Wompet** · 8th November 08, 08:19 PM

Machine-sewn ... Alan, I wouldn't even want to attempt machine sewing the one kilt I've been making. Lightweight eBay PV, so light that I had to line it with 7 oz hemp-cotton to make it heavy enough to wear.

**kevinkinney** · 8th November 08, 08:25 PM

I second Alan's recommendation-

I've hand sewn 2 kilts from the 6" sett Douglas I got from F+K.

After that I gave up on the time required and continued making my son's kilts on the machine. He just grows too quickly.

Cheers,

Kevin.

**bawright** · 8th November 08, 09:34 PM

had good luck with a all cotton fabric from hobbylobby and also with a heavy denim tho not bull denim. the cotton denim takes rinkels and let'as um go over night...tho you got to sew down the pleats.

**Barb T** · 10th November 08, 07:25 AM

then my balloon burst when I saw that the sett size was 3 inches...too small for a kilt.

This isn't necessarily a disaster. You can always double the sett and make one pleat every two setts.

The other thing to think about is this. Because this is Black Watch, it's easy to get the sett size wrong because it's an ABAC tartan. Are you sure the sett is really 3"? Could it be 3" between the black stripes in the green? If it's the latter, then the sett is really 6". Would be worth checking.

**Pleater** · 10th November 08, 12:07 PM

Amongst my kilts in progress I have started one using material that I considered too light, so I have used it double and after ironing the two layered piece, it does seem to hold together - and make a much better weight of fabric for a kilt.

I have so much photography to do, not just kilts but for an article on knitting machine carriage disassembly and cleaning - which I have yet to write - but I will get around to everything eventually - I hope.

Using folded over material creates a lower edge which does not require hemming!!

Anne the Pleater

**Alan H** · 10th November 08, 12:40 PM

Originally Posted by Barb T.

This isn't necessarily a disaster. You can always double the sett and make one pleat every two setts.

The other thing to think about is this. Because this is Black Watch, it's easy to get the sett size wrong because it's an ABAC tartan. Are you sure the sett is really 3"? Could it be 3" between the black stripes in the green? If it's the latter, then the sett is really 6". Would be worth checking.

I figured that the guys at F & K would *know*, you know, but you're right, it can't hurt to ask. I need to make a kilt for my cousin and I really don't want to use this super-lghtweight stuff again. He'd be happy wearing Black Watch, but I can guess that he'd feel funny wearing the Lindsay tartan, since we're in no way connected to the Lindsays.