a little encouragement here please

[Kiltman]

Not to discourage you, but I'm still looking for the perfect kilt. Being a perfectionist can have its limitations. I go for near perfect and hope no one notices. Hang in there.

[The Wizard of BC]

My personal record for ripping out a line of stitches is 35.

I still can't get near to the work of someone like Barb T. So I just keep practicing.

[The F-H.C.A.G.]

So what's your solution to the left handed problem then? I just learned how to sew the pleats right handed myself and went back to my evil habits for the rest of it.

Be well,

[blackbeard]

So what's your solution to the left handed problem then? I just learned how to sew the pleats right handed myself and went back to my evil habits for the rest of it.

Be well,

After trying to teach my right hand to hold a needle and realizing that I wanted to finish this kilt before Christmas 2010, I knew I had to find some method for working from the waist to the fell. Being a leftie I am used to figuring out how to live in a right handed world. I started working on some type of clamping system to hold the waist taught. I kept rolling around ideas until the quilter section of my brain remembered about the tabs on the sides of quilt frames. The top and bottom of a quilt are held taught on rollers but the sides are held taught with strips of muslin that are basted or pined on. I grabbed some fabric from my stash and ripped a strip about 6” wide and a couple of feet long.
The rise is a pretty simple section to stitch, so after taking a few anchor stitches, I baste on the strip of fabric and using Elise and Barb's method, tuck that strip under my thigh, and voilà! Tension. It is one more step of the pleating process, but only takes a few seconds to baste on and take off.

[blackbeard]

My personal record for ripping out a line of stitches is 35.

I still can't get near to the work of someone like Barb T. So I just keep practicing.

I feel a little better now.

[The Wizard of BC]

Blackbeard, I'm a leftie too. My solution to the problem is to the follow the directions in Barb's book but imagine myself looking in a mirror.
I've used this trick since I was in first grade as a way to deal with living in a right-handed world.
I simply cross my left leg over my right, tuck the Fell under my left knee and stitch with my left hand just the way Barb does but from the other side of the pleat edge.

[blackbeard]

Not to discourage you, but I'm still looking for the perfect kilt. Being a perfectionist can have its limitations. I go for near perfect and hope no one notices. Hang in there.

Thanks for the words of non-discouragement. I just finished re-stitching pleats 1, 2 & 3 AGAIN! and they are looking a lot better than the first ones. I realize this is my first hand sewn kilt and am not expecting perfection this time around ; just respectable. Perfection will come at a later time....But when?