Belted plaid with a drawstring.

[theborderer]

Hello and Welcome from Berlin, Germany

[figheadair]

It's proving a challenge to write this one up but hope to have it done shortly.

[Brian Boru]

Gentlemen,
It works, it works, it works!!! I have three great kilts and have done this to all three. I had the kilts pleated by a friend at Wolfstone Kilt Co. at my local Ren Faire, and using binder clips (a.k.a. bull clips)clipped each pleat. I then measured from my waist to the top of my knee and applied the measurement to the kilt moving the clips to the correct distance from the selvege edge of the kilt up each pleat. I then sewed 0.5 inch plastic rings (purchased from JoAnns Fabrics) in place on each pleat just above the binder clip. I then ran a piece of soft cotton cord through the rings, arranged the kilt on the bed and laid back on the kilt, tied the cord about my waist, arranged the aprons, buckled my belt and stood up, done! I had my great kilt on in just under eight minutes, (most of the time was spent chasing my cats off of it ) I added a second belt with my dirk and sporran and a smaller belt pouch on it and was ready to walk out out the door. Adding the rings makes putting my great kilts on much easier and far less time consuming than doing all that pleating each and every time I want to wear one of them. I plan on doing this to any more great kilts I get. Good luck on yours.

Regards,

Brian

[Droid]

Can you upload pictures?

[Herr Doktor]

Goeie dag South Afrika!

Tag Berlin!

"It's proving a challenge to write this one up but hope to have it done shortly."

Peter I am looking forward to seeing what you have found in researching this artefact. It should I hope, prove to be most helpful in aiding myself and others in reconstructing an historically accurate drawstring secured kilt.Thank you again for all your times and research.

Brian, your experiments with the drawstring sound most intriguing. And that you have had good success with them as well. I too would like, if at all possible, to see some photographs detailing the process you have used. Is this possible?

Many thanks to all who have responded to this post!

Oh and to Mike, would it be possible to start another thread for information on the Austrian tartans, including an artefact recovered at the Hallstatt site in Österreich? I have a soft spot for the Salzburg area.

Tschüß!

[figheadair]

Peter I am looking forward to seeing what you have found in researching this artefact. It should I hope, prove to be most helpful in aiding myself and others in reconstructing an historically accurate drawstring secured kilt.Thank you again for all your times and research.

Here it is. Hope it makes sense - http://www.scottishtartans.co.uk/A_H..._MacGregor.pdf

[xman]

Thank-you, Peter. Very enlightening.

[Morris at Heathfield]

Oh and to Mike, would it be possible to start another thread for information on the Austrian tartans, including an artefact recovered at the Hallstatt site in Österreich? I have a soft spot for the Salzburg area.

That sounds like a good thread for The Tartan Place forum. There is a bit of confusion on the subject that could stand to be cleared up. Were you aware of the Austrian tartans, or was this the first you'd heard of them?

[Orvis]

Thank you, Peter. Your paper is most informative, and it (especially the illustrations) confirms some of my ideas of how to make a drawstring plaid. I presume that the same technique might also have been used to make an early 18th c. drawstring feileadh beag. Although none of those has survived and reenactors obviously can't document the practice, I think it is logical to assume that a feileadh without the pleats sewn in would have been donned the same way.

[figheadair]

Thank you, Peter. Your paper is most informative, and it (especially the illustrations) confirms some of my ideas of how to make a drawstring plaid. I presume that the same technique might also have been used to make an early 18th c. drawstring feileadh beag. Although none of those has survived and reenactors obviously can't document the practice, I think it is logical to assume that a feileadh without the pleats sewn in would have been donned the same way.

I think that that is a very logiocal deduction and might well explain the pleats/folds all the way around in the portrait of the MacDonald Boys and also that of James Moray, Yr of Abercairney. Ever noticed the similarity between those two?