My latest attempt

[English Bloke]

Good work! Looks fine to me.

[rsvpiper]

Mate that kilt look perfectly good to me. Nice job

[The Volusianator]

If I didn't read it, there's no way I'd believe you made that and didn't buy it from a shop. Very well done!

[Remy]

Looks great!

[Aspiringloser]

MacMillan's son: I noticed the same thing as well and it bothered the **** out of me. My mother too those pictures. When I got home I asked my stepmother to look at my pleats and she said they were fine. I took more pics with the timer on my camera and they looked the same. The lean is a combination of the driveway being slanted and having my right hip cocked higher than the left. So what SoSelkirk said as well as poor posture.

Thomas H: I honestly don't remember when I started it. I took a picture on July 3 that had almost half of the pleats finished. I probably started it a week earlier than that. I work in the HVAC field and I live in Northeast MS. The wrong profession and geographical location for short workdays. There are some days that I get home and just don't feel like working on it. I would strongly urge you to attempt to make your own. It's frustrating as hell while doing it but is very rewarding when you finish it. It gets easier every time. Don't expect a wearable one your first time. If it indeed does turn to be wearable, win win. If it doesn't don't be disappointed and LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES. I wasn't an XMarks member after my first attempt. I posted a thread entitled "Help Me Learn From My Mistakes" after my second attempt came out terribly. I took those lessons learned and applied them to my third attempt. The reason for my measuring mistake was simply haste. Haste makes waste. Take your time. If a pleat looks like crap, don't convince yourself that it will look okay after you get another few pleats sewn. It will still look like crap only now you'll have to pick even more stitches out to get back to the pleat. I've done this several times and every time the pleat still looked like crap. I strongly recommend Marton Mills PV for a first-timer. I purchased some tartanesque cotton type stuff that was $4 per yard from Hancock Fabric. It served it's purpose but it will suck to make a kilt that came out right but was made in fabric that is too light for a proper kilt. Go for it!

NeightRG: I bought six lengths of PV while my folks were on vacation in England and had them bring it back to me. I have some 16 oz. XMarks tartan that I'm working up to. My second attempt was made on wool that was expensive by my poor man standards. I don't want to make that mistake again. The best lesson learned from my second attempt was in the apron shaping. I was advised to rather that have it flare to the hem/selvedge to return it to parallel with a vertical line. The rough formula I used for this was to first decide how much wider the bottom of the apron would be compared to the top of the apron (bottom of fell). I think I used 1.5 inches on each side. Then at the 1.5 inch wider mark, starting at the hemline, I ascended vertically, parallel to a vertical stripe to my halfway between the hem and bottom of fell mark. Then I curved from that point to the bottom of the fell. This worked well for me but may not work for everyone. I can especially see this being harder to accommodate on a kilt that is much shorter than this one. I figured out that the broader the curve, the better. The underapron edge has a much sharper curve and doesn't look as well as the apron edge. But since it's the underapron, it isn't there for others to see. I asked how much of the apron should be vertical and how much should be curved and the answer I got was "as much as you can handle". At least I think that is how it was worded. I definitely got better at putting darts in my facings on this attempt. Darts are your friend when trying to match horizontal stripes after folding and edge along a curved line. Thanks for the comments. I'm a pretty casual guy. I plan to find reasons to dress it up more in the near future. I'd like to start playing gigs sometime. I suppose we'll see.

And to everyone else: Thank you for the kind words. Sorry to ramble. Yet another long day so I thought I'd cram it all in before I hit the shower and then go to bed. I get to do it all over again. And they even pay me for it.

Good night X Marks!

[Sharkman]

What's the Worry! It looks Great! Good Job!

[Mike_Oettle]

Looks good, Aspiring! And I would disagree that it is short – it goes halfway across your knees.
Good luck with your fourth attempt.
Regards,
Mike

[Chas]

I think the grass might need cutting - everything else looks OK to me!

Regards

Chas

[Aspiringloser]

Mike_Oettle: The length from the bottom of the fell to the hem is fine. The distance from the fell to the waistband is too short. I hastily used my X-Kilt measurements. The X-Kilt has no two inch rise. So the waist has to be worn two inches lower than where a traditional kilt is worn but I'm still pleasantly surprised with the final product. I plan on starting my fourth this weekend, possibly even today. We'll see after I wash the day away. I'll probably go into lazy mode.

Chas: You'd have to take up the issue of the grass with my stepdad. Thanks for the comment on everything else.

[buellboy492]

My Friend, that looks fantastic. Having made about 7-8 X-Kilts and attempting my second tartan wool kilt, I assure you that you are light years ahead of me. I just cant get the idea of pleating to the sett. I have to pleat to a stripe for some reason, just can't get my head around the concept I guess.