Splits and measurements!?!?

[Barb T]

You'll do fine! And you can always post your questions for advice as you go along.

[Alan H]

Great thread.

And yup, Mayniac, there are no splits in the X-Kilt, 'cause the apron is nowhere near full width.

[Pleater]

A thought just struck me this morning - they do from time to time.

With my lighter and posher kilts I wear a liner, which is the same shape as a kilt but without the pleats. It doesn't get in the way as it is several inches shorter.

All it is is a length of material to match the waist of my kilts - so it wraps over at the front, and it has darts into shape it into the waist.

If you get a piece of material longer than you think you will need, mark the centre back, then wrap it around your hips over a shirt or whatever you wear when kilted, and see how much the back needs to be taken in to shape it.

I start an inch or so either side of the centre back and make a pair of half inch darts - feel where the fabric is no longer slack so you can judge how long to make them.

Fold the fabric and sew quarter of an inch from the fold tapering to nothing where you sew off the edge of the material.

Make another dart where you want the edges of the line of pleats to be. Try half an inch there too, then put in a couple more evenly spaced between the ones at the back and the side.

It is most likely that you will find that to get a good approximation to your shape you will need to make some darts longer than others, and you might need to make some darts wider than others - you can always make the dart wider, so start small and work up.

This will involve a lot of standing in front of a long mirror and twisting and turning, or getting someone to assist, but eventually you should have something that is fitted to you.

It is advisable to have the waist tightish, but with a bit of ease in the hips, because they change shape if you sit or lean, so using this to judge how to sew the fell might result in something too tight, The waist, however, if belted or reinforced and buckled is going to be a closer fit.

You can now pin the waist and see where you would best have the edges of the apron, and you can even shape the edges for the best coverage. A straight edge can sometimes look as though it is narrower at the hem than the waist, so having the apron two inches wider at the bottom that then top actually makes it look straight.

Now you can draw on the liner where the edge of the apron lies, measure the difference between the top and bottom edges, and generally use it to check just how much around you are at those points, and how much narrowing is coing to make the pleats fit into the small of your back comfortably.

You can also see how much more or less apron you need for it to look right, if a two inch taper is right for you, and so on.

If you use some cheap but fairly firmly woven material - or even start out with some old sheet and repeat the process of making until you have something you are happy with. You might want to fold the edge over once and sew along it to stop it stretching with some materials.

This is quite a common thing to do when doing made to measure garments, and the result is called a sloper.

If you hold it in place with a couple of safety pins you can see if it results in a level horizontal waist or not when the back is vertical - theoretically the front should be straight up and down too.

There are lots of books which give fitting instructions that usually end up in charity shops as few people wear tailored dresses and skirts these days, but they can be useful to see how to remedy such things as creases across the front or back or uneven waistlines.

Not only that, but you can then make a liner to protect your kilts if you need one.

Anne the Pleater

[Smayniac]

I believe the Glover booklet that Barb cites in her bibiliography suggests something very like this. It's available online at:

http://users.telenet.be/jbruyndonckx/kilt_making1.html

As I recall, he says you should build your liner of heavy canvas, pinning as you go, and use that to establish your other measurements. If it isn't this site, I'll have to go and look through my printouts for the correct one.

Bob

[Gilvray]

Ignore this post - I've made it a seperate thread as I'm very happy with the great advice I've been given on splits....