Moving the buckles-TAKE NOTE

[mookien]

Hi guys

Yes, a kilt is a custom-made garment, and yes, the loops would be "off center" if you moved the buckles too much. But it's better in the long run to have a kilt fit (and I don't put loops on most kilts to begin with - not trying to start any arguments here ; ).

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And I agree with Wally - moving buckles isn't tricky - you have to be careful not to cut the tartan, but it's just a matter of patience. Much easier than rebuilding the whole darn kilt and a _bundle_ cheaper than getting a new one! And, if the loops look odd after moving the buckles, cut the suckers off.

Barb T: Why can't you move the belt loops to re-center them, after you move the buckles?

[AKScott]

Barb T: Why can't you move the belt loops to re-center them, after you move the buckles?

Well, you could, but the whole shebang is twisted around from zero.

You don't need them, just cut them off ;-)

[Chas]

Well, you could, but the whole shebang is twisted around from zero.

You don't need them, just cut them off ;-)

I have done this more than once and I have never had anything twisted. If done correctly the back stays where it is and the two aprons move - covering more or less of each other.

If this is hard to visualise, do it in reality. Place your kilt on your bed, as you would wear it - aprons covering each other, but not buckled up.

Now take the outer apron and shift it over 1 inch and then do the same to the inner. The waist should be 2 inches wider - but the back has not moved at all.

Regards

Chas

[Barb T]

....but the back has not moved at all.

No, actually, this is not the case. If you wrap the apron farther around, it covers up, let's say, 2" of the tartan in the pleats on the apron edge side. But the other side of the pleats is a mirror image, and that portion of the tartan is _not_ covered up, because you don't move the left apron edge relative to the pleats. That means that, when you have an even expanse of pleats left and right across the back of the wearer, the old center back will be skewed 1" to the right. Another way of thinking about this is that you still want the center front of the apron centered. This means that you have to rotate the kilt 1" counterclockwise (looking down toward your feet) compared to where you wore it before. That skews the center back 1" counterclockwise as well.

So, in your example, Chas, the wrinkle comes in the fact that, once you have the kilt on, you have to rotate it to get the front apron centered again. If this isn't obvious, think about it using an example where you'd try to get a man's kilt to fit a kid and you'd have to wrap the apron around so far that only 6" of pleats show along the very edge of the pleats next to the left apron edge. What was centered in that 6" of pleats would certainly not be the old center back.

As far as the loops go, I didn't remove them from the band kilt because someone larger might need that kilt in the future. If you were working on your own kilt, you could certainly move them. How easy that is depends on how the kiltmaker sewed the loops on. When I sew loops on, I put them on before putting the top band on, so the top of the loops are actually stitched into the top band seam. If you wanted to move those loops, you'd need to actually unstitch the top band (which would also require unstitching a portion of the lining to get at the seam), take the loop off, move it, and stitch everything back together again. On the other hand, if the kiltmaker sewed the loop on at the very end, it's a simple matter of cutting the stitches and moving the loop.