a little encouragement here please

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

...snip...

Oh - and one other thing. I do pin a pleat before stitching it, and, when I do Kilt Kamp, I teach people to use plenty of pins in a pleat to hold it while they stitch. I find I take out a lot fewer pleats if I pin first. My book doesn't say to do that because my co-author is absolutely rabid about stitching without pins. But, I've found that I can't do what I consider acceptable work if I don't pin.

Thanks for that Barb! I use more pins (i.e., I use them more than once in each pleat) than the book calls for. Nice to feel justified.

But Elsie does let us left-handed folk use a couple more pins than you right-handers.
I'm only on my eighth hand-sewn kilt now, so I'm no expert, but I do have a couple of suggestions:

• There are a lot of steps in the book that can be done left-handed. You just have to change the orientation of the kilt from how it is in the book (e.g. top to the right instead of the left).
• Make the kilt completely left-handed. A few of us have already done this. Other that the pleats facing opposite the normal direction, it will be the same as a normal kilt. Plus, this pleating direction works better when sitting in American cars.

Does that make it an "abby normal" kilt?


Seriously, some of the steps in making a kilt are actually improved by doing them left handed, so don't get discouraged with the pleats. They are actually a lot less of the kilt than you might think!

Be well,

Star