Quote Originally Posted by Zardoz View Post
One question, Since I know little to nothing about making kilts (or sewing in general) I asked my kiltmaker about the hem, and they say a 1.5" to 2" hem will allow the pleats to hang nicer in the back, that a 1" (or less) hem can make the pleats tend to 'kick out' at the bottom. What would the size of this hem be?
I've put hems of all lengths into kilts, and the most important things are as follows:

1) Turn the hem up only once. Turning it up, and then turning the fringed edge over again _will_ make a ridge. Yes, the fringe will show on the inside, but no one should be looking at the inside of your kilt....

2) When you press the kilt, make sure that the iron spans the "bridge" between the double part of the hem and the single part of the rest of the kilt when you're pressing from the front side. If you run the iron on the front side of the kilt "along the ditch" just above the hem, you'll get a ridge. Pressing from the back side, though, you should press with the iron either on the part with the hem or the part without, but not across the two so that you can avoid a ridge.

3) Use a herringbone stitch instead of the standard blind hem stitch. This gives the hem a bit of flex and doesn't pull the outside back in ridge. Here's what it looks like:



Done right, no one will know that your kilt has a hem. If you can put a 1.5" hem in it, great. If you don't have enough length to do that, I wouldn't worry about putting in just 1". Heck, I even lengthened a kilt for a dancer once and had only 1/2" to put into the hem. It was fine.

And Steve, you are the bee's knees.