First post and first kilt

[psyopper]

So I tried making an XKilt yesterday....

Actually it came out pretty good all things considered. I make tactical gear part time in my home so ironically all I have is an industrial straight stitch needle feed machine with a servo motor and heavyweight #69/ Tex 70/ EE thread. I like to say that I "built" a kilt rather than just "made" one. The capability to "superbuild" a kilt exists if you can figure out ways around not having a serger or bartacker. I suppose I could have broken out my old school tabletop machine, but I wanted a challenge.

I really considered this from the outset to be a prototype for myself to learn on and make better the next time around. I definitely learned, that's for sure! And I definitely know what I want to do better next time. But for this reason I really didn't put a LOT of effort into assembly which explains some of the sloppiness you see.

Without a bartacker or serger you get kind of limited and need to be creative with your construction technique as compared to the original plans. The only hemmed edge that wasn't double folded was the bottom selveged edge. I hemmed it with a double row of stitches but only did it with a single fold.

To get around the bartacker I did what most straight stitch makers do: 3-5 backstitches in a relative "z" shape to grab as many different yarns in the fabric as possible. Most of the gear makers I know (myself included) use this method to anchor PALS webbing - if it's good enough for low crawling with ammo pouches I'm pretty sure it's going to keep my pleats in place.

Some photos, and following them, lessons learned...







For more photos, and in larger sizes: http://gallery.psyopper.com/thumbnails.php?album=4

Things I did different:

Tapering the fell. After I noted my measurements and figured out what my tapers would be I used a gear building technique - pre assembly with binder clips rather than pins. I started with setting the taper on the center pleat (I had an odd number of pleats) first and clipping both sides of it to hold it in place. Then I alternated back and forth across the center pleat to set my other tapers, clipping each one as I went. I figured I was working it more like torquing bolts on a car - trying to keep things as even as possible by working from the center out and staying balanced left to right.

After I got my taper set I picked the whole thing up and laid it out on the ironing board to steam and iron the crud out of it. I mean this was a good 10 minutes with the iron. Once that was done I had the inner folds very well defined and was able to unclip the pleats and sew down the inner folds. This made the final assembly of the fell a lot easier, though probably a bit longer than the original.

Stitching pleats: Here's what I learned - the pinch and pull method of getting straight pleat edges just didn't work for me. Unfortunately I figured this out after I had already stitched down all of my outside edges of the pleats. In the future I'll be pressing ALL of my pleats first, then stitching them down. A longer process to be sure, but also will keep my measurements spot on and make stitching in a straight line (and keeping my pleats straight)a lot easier.

Things of note:

SSRBs: Surface Mounted Side Release Buckles - the plastic buckles I use as a secondary closure. I figured I was making a heavy duty tactical quality kilt, I might as well do it right! I stitched in a second piece of material to back the female side of the buckles with to help keep them from pulling out, then measured a dozen times and marked the prongs with some chalk and pressed them down to figure out where to punch the holes.

PALS: Most of you know what this is - it's a common military standard called Pouch Attachment Ladder System. It's the series of webbing spaced 1" apart and stitched at 1.5" segments to attach pouches with. I integrated these with the SSRB's to minimize clutter and tie the whole thing together with a bit of style. I plan to build some pockets/pouches to put on my hips at a later date. I do have a method to my madness on the size and number though - that size will fit a 3x 5.56mm magazine wide shingle of pouches on each side.

Belt loops: Considering that I already had the webbing on hand it seemed natural to use some extra to make the belt loops rather than trying to hand make a bunch of them. Plus it helps keep the theme.

Inner lining: This is probably the most obvious difference to those that have made these. You can see it in the third picture above. I wanted/needed something behind the PALS grid to stitch to to ensure I was getting an adequate number of layers to anchor to. Depending on where the stitches fell for the grid the material thickness could actually have been merely 1 to 2 layers. I didn't want any excuses for the stitches to pull out in the future. Also it serves a second purpose of covering (mostly) the backing plates of the SSRB's to add a level of comfort.

Seating the belt line: Instead of using a piece of material folded over the top I tried something completely different. I took a piece of material (the inner lining actually) and laid it out, good side down on top of the kilt's outer face. I stitched it down 1/2" from the top edge and then folded it over to the back side and ironed the daylights out of it. This effectually means that there is nothing "over" the top edge, but it is instead hemmed inside the inner lining.

What I did wrong was measure the inner lining, forgetting to account for the taper of the fell. This meant that the bottom edge of the inner lining was about 6" too narrow to fit around my hips, which then required me to split and seperate it as you see in the photos. The last thing I wanted to do was disassemble the lining from the kilt after I had already stitched it down.
I added some edge binding to the split section to keep it from fraying and then added a tag over the top of the split to stabilize it and keep it from separating any more.

It turns out that I rather like this method of construction though it adds a bit of complexity to the process. I will be doing this again for my next kilt, but with two separate sections to allow for the fell. This has a lot of potential actually - if I stitched down the vertical portions of the lining I could add rear pockets to the kilt. I will also integrate the belt loops with this as well.

Taper: Somehow I didn't stabilize my pleats well enough before setting my taper - it appears as though the taper flowed out to the pleats from the fell. This probably has something to do with the way that I locked down the pleats.

[Lady M]

Welcome to the forum!

[ghostlight]

Neat! Thank you for sharing your first XKilt with us and welcome to X Marks the Scot!

[McFarkus]

from Chicago. Your integration of PALS webbing makes your kilt look a bit like
Alpha Kilts new Compass model.

[JolyStNicholas]

Nice looking kilt, and welcome from Lake County, Central Florida!

[psyopper]

So I have a question for others who have DIY'd their own kilt.

It seems my father passed on his ...umm... best genetics to me. It seems as though my fell line is a touch too tight and measured at just the right spot to "enhance" the appearance. While flattering, it's is also somewhat embarrassing without the absolute best "fortitude".

My question is thus: What ideas do you have that might be relatively easy to adjust this out?

Wait - is this what a sporran is really for?

[KFCarter]

Not a DIY'er here, just welcoming you to the forum from Savannah, GA.
I was very interested to read your detailed notes and the kilt looks great!

[meinfs]

Very nice! Congrats!

[Bugbear]

Welcome.

[vorpallemur]

So I have a question for others who have DIY'd their own kilt.

It seems my father passed on his ...umm... best genetics to me. It seems as though my fell line is a touch too tight and measured at just the right spot to "enhance" the appearance. While flattering, it's is also somewhat embarrassing without the absolute best "fortitude".

My question is thus: What ideas do you have that might be relatively easy to adjust this out?

Wait - is this what a sporran is really for?

One of the purposes a sporran serves, yeah.

You need to add some ease to your hip measurement.