How to prepare DW material

[Heming]

Uh... I'm not getting this. And I thought I could sew

I can't visualise this "edge of the turned over join". Where is the join turned over? Anyone with drawing skills?

I'll try to post a pic of what I do in a few hours (need to take the pics first).

[attworth]

Uh... I'm not getting this. And I thought I could sew

I can't visualise this "edge of the turned over join". Where is the join turned over? Anyone with drawing skills?

I'll try to post a pic of what I do in a few hours (need to take the pics first).

Here's a few sketches I made in CAD. Keep in mind I'm used to drawing streets and stuff.

This is how I would do a solid color contemporary kilt. Barb has pretty good instructions in her book for doing a traditional kilt.

This first picture is looking from the bottom of the kilt up at the pleats. Notice, do not put the join at the inner fold or you'll have a large bulge after folding it over. I like to put it on the inside rather than the outside so it won't be seen when the pleats open up - if that makes any sense.

The concept of not putting it on the inner fold is *I believe* what Barb was mentioning.



This second photo shows the same thing, but this is pre-pleating. This image is rotated to where the top of the first image is now the right-hand side.



This image shows the turned over join. Fold the outside edge in to prevent frayed edges from showing. The rotation is the same as the first picture.



Hope these help and are clear. Again, this is just my way of doing things - may not be the correct or best way.

[Barb T]

Once you've stitched two pieces of fabric together at a seam, you make it into a flat felled seam by under-trimming one side, then pulling the seam open and encasing the raw edge with the wider seam allowance by folding it over the edge, and then blind stitching it flat. Illustrated below:





It's the seam that you see on jeans, and doing one by machine stitching is well described at http://sewing.about.com/od/techniques/ss/flatfelled.htm

As far as the placement of the join goes for a trad kilt, the following diagram illustrates the position so that the join is neither on the fold nor where it would show as the pleat opens up:

[attworth]

What Barb said. Same principal, different practice - much better for a traditional style kilt.

[Heming]

Ok, here's what I do. Apart from the felled seam (thanks, Barb, I'm getting it now!), I think we pretty much agree. I'm just not expressing myself very clearly.

Here's a garment I made earlier. Not quite a kilt, and not quite a pleated skirt either:


This is my join. See how the seam allowance kisses the pleat.



I know it's not pretty, I've not pressed it yet...

[Mipi]

Heming

Please do yourself a favor and buy Barb's book (The Art of Kilt Making). It's worth the money. When you start making your traditional kilt you'll have a lot new questions and the book will save you a lot of time and nerves.

[Heming]

I'll order the book come next pay day. But I think it'll be a while before I start making tanks. Maybe a couple of solid-colour semi-traditional numbers. I only sew what I wear myself, and I haven't found a tartan I'm comfortable with yet. They'r either restricted, ugly, or out of stock