Corduroy X-Kilt

[Panache]

Today, I started by sewing the fabric with the velcro onto the over apron. Seeing as how this was about 10:00 am, I had not yet been drinking and now understand the concept

Here, pinning it into place, matching the A shaping



Sewn along the top (raw) edge



Trimming the edge to match the left hand edge of the apron



Here, I've pinned down the edges of the apron-this was a challenge, since corduroy wants to be STRAIGHT, not diagonal, but I managed to tweak it



Here it is sewn down-with measuring tape to prove it is indeed 9"



More...

[Panache]

Obviously, I've needed to make some minor adjustments for the corduroy, but I'm otherwise trying to follow the directions to the letter. Soooo, let's see, what next?

Marking the centers of the 5.25" underpleats




Here it is with some pleats ironed in. The corduroy is so regular, you can hardly tell there are pleats! It just looks like a flat piece of material. OK, I'm exaggerating, but it does look pretty good (who can find the pleat with the seam running down the middle of it?)



I went ahead and pinned in the pleats, because this corduroy does not hold them well. Also, I wanted to measure and be sure it was right BEFORE sewing them in-I hate seam ripping! Yep, a nice even 48"



Bar tacking them down. I was able to easily fit all the material underneath the arm of the machine-it's very flexible.



Here, I've ironed the underside in preparation for sewing the inner pleats (this is a must with the corduroy-it does not like to hold a sharp pleat edge)



More coming...

[Panache]

If I thought that hand sewing the hem of 6-7 yards of a Stillwater kilt was tedious, I stand corrected. Sewing up the inner pleats edges was more tedious. But I must admit-necessary. Otherwise the recipient would have a helluva time getting the pleats to stay ironed in. Corduroy barely wrinkles, but this also means it does not like to hold a crease.



Here, I've pinned in the taper. Sorry I didn't take any pictures of the process, but Panache was writing more of his story and was not available to hold the camera. Given that my victim has a 44" waist and a 48" rump, there are only 4" of taper needed. This means that I was able to taper without any overlap of the inner pleats. But, I chose to overlap two pleats (at each hip) and have no taper for the back 2 pleats (actually, no taper for the back pleat and half of each one to each side of the back pleat). Then ~1/2" taper for the rest of the pleats. Once this was done, I measured to be sure I had a 44" waist. Yes indeed! To be absolutely honest, I had to play a bit before I reached this perfection



Then, I sewed them down

[Panache]

I did just a little work on the kilt this evening after work. I had sent a PM to AlanH with concerns about the over apron strip of velcro. With the deap pleat under this apron, it covers up the velcro. He said that this was an unforeseen problem with the instructions (the deeper the pleat, the more likely it will interfere with the velcro), and he recommended that rather than sacrifice the deep pleat, I just seam rip the velcro and sew it down OVER the pleat.

By the way, those who have been following this thread, may have noted my comment about how well I sewed down the velcro. Here I am, ripping it off. Wine was necessary.



Then, I folded in the pleat and hand sewed the velcro onto it and the over-apron strip (note that I did not completely remove the velcro, just enough to fit the pleat underneath).



Here it is, as I've just finished sewing it down



Note that it does not show at all on the front apron, becaue it is sewn just to the strip underneath (Thank you Alan!)

[Panache]

AlanH recommends anchoring the top of the pleats before putting on the waistband, so I did so. It only took about 2 minutes.



Then, I cut out a 4" wide strip of material (two, actually, and joined them so it would be long enough to go all the way to the end of the under-apron)



At this point, I decided to cut the excess fabric off the under apron side-I angled this a bit-for modesty.



And ironed it for hemming



I didn't take a picture of the actual hemming-just did it on the machine.

[Panache]

I decided to iron the waistband folds, just for reference, before I pinned it onto the kilt





Then I pinned it in place-lots of pins



And sewed it on



Because I'm a perfectionist, obsessive-compulsive, I added another line of stitching (I felt the first one was not straight enough and I also figured this would strengthen the waistband).

[Panache]

Here's an edge-on view of the waistband, like the line drawing in AlanH's instructions.



I decided to sew the velcro onto the under-apron before sewing the waistband all the way on. I chose to put the hooks on this part-less likely to cause any visible damage to the fabric. I put the softer stuff on the over apron. My sewing machine HATES this aspect of velcro-thread keeps breaking. I muddled through nonetheless.



Folding in the edge of the waistband



Here's what it will look like on the right hand edge of the over apron



Now, the tedious hand sewing of the waistband, because, as AlanH wrote, "If you machine sew it you will also see a line of stitching in your waistband. That's no big deal to anyone but a mad perfectionist, but hey, maybe you have obsessive-compulsive issues". Gee, Alan, we didn't even know each other that well when you wrote this manual, how'd you learn to describe me so well?

[Panache]

I finished today! I think I've probably put far more time into this than Alan intended when he wrote his little "manifesto", but as I've mentioned multiple times, I am a "mad perfectionist", and this project has actually been rather therapeutic for me during some difficult times at work lately.

Enough about me. This is about the kilt. Today I put the belt loops on.

First, I cut a 4" wide strip from a full width of the fabric (24")



Then I tri-folded it and ironed it down





Here's the whole strip



Then I sewed down one side of the strip and up the other. I did not bother with a zig-zag down the middle, because the raw edge was folded inside and I had a selvedged edge on top, so fraying was not an issue.



Next, I cut and attach the loops...

[Panache]

Now, I have a 24" long strip that is about 1 1/3" wide, so I cut it in 6 even 4" strips



And I laid them out on the kilt (5 of them) to see about positioning





When I had them right, I pinned them loosely in place and sewed them on. I just went back and forth over the raw edges with a wide zig-zag, then moved in a little and did it again. I thought my machine was going to go up in smoke! After all, I'm sewing through 8-12 layers of corduroy here (think about it-3 layers of belt loop, 4 layers of waistband and 1 to 4 or 5 layers of tapered pleat)!



I sewed snaps on the edges of the inner and outer aprons, with corresponding snaps on the outer and inner aspects of the kilt (these may need to be moved by the "victim" if they're not perfect).

[Panache]

I laid the finished product out on the floor to show it in it's entirety



The other side



And then I realized it needed to be ON someone, so I put Panache in it (no, it is not made for him, and does not fit him, but we were able to make it look good from one side at a time).





You can still see the chalk marks, and it looks a bit wrinkled, so I threw it in the washing machine. Right now it is in the dryer. I will press it when it emerges, and there will likely be a few more pictures on the Nor Cal Kilt Night thread next week!

This has been a lot of fun. I must say that although corduroy presented more benefits than challenges, I probably spent about 30 hours on this. Then again, it was my first X-Kilt, and there are those "mad perfectionist" issues of mine!