Skirting Obscenity

[Alan H]

having made a few of these, I have to agree with Steve, especially in terms of the material weight. I've had good luck with Marton Mills PV for womens short skirts.

One little trick.... in a Mans kilt we just measure the length all around, pick one number and start ripping fabric.

That kind of doesn't work with womens skirts, depending on the shape of the woman. I once made a skirt for a woman with...hmmmm....how to put it....rather substantial (strong) buttocks and I measured my usual thing for the fell and drop and cut the material straight. However, the slope of her upper butt, combined with the long curve of the middle butt was SIGNIFICANTLY longer than the straight drop from under her navel to where the kilt hit her on the upper thigh. Upshot was, what seemed just fine from in front was uh...rather "spectacular" from behind.

When I re-made it, I tried a trick...I cut out new material, and the original cut from the flat cloth was straight, like always. But I made that cut with the BACK of the kilt in mind. If I'd left it like that, the front of the kilt would have been too long. What I did was remove about an inch from the cloth where the aprons are, from the waistband area (not the bottom of the kilt) this needs to be "eased in" so that there's not a jagged transition from the tartan pattern in the back to the front.

I don't know if that's clear or not. It worked OK. This was not a billie kilt, obviously...

You've been warned.

[The Wizard of BC]

Alan is totally correct in his making a skirt for a girl shape. It's called slope.

I do this to every kilt I make. If the customer wears his kilt at full rise the slope is minimal.
But the lower the kilt is worn the more important slope becomes.

This is true for people who have lots of shape too.

A lot of kiltmakers look at me weird when I tell them I put slope in a kilt. They have never heard of it before. But if you look at the kilts in the photo that goes around the forum from "The Windsor Style" of the kilts hanging in the closet you will see slope in them.

If my explanation of slope is still not making sense simply put on a pair of jeans and stand sideways in front of a mirror. You will see that the waistband is significantly higher in the back than in the front. This is slope.

[Dixiecat]

Hi X,

From what you give in your post I could not make a skirt that would be guaranteed to fit the way the lady expects.

I would strongly suggest you have the lady take some actual measurements. This would include the length of the Fell.

Let her measure where she wants the waist to fit and where she wants the hem.

Please remember that the top straps of a girls skirt, worn lower than the natural waist, may need to be closer to the top of the kilt than is normal for a man's full rise kilt.

The thing about the Billie type skirts is that there is no Fell to speak of. These types of skirts use a placket to create the taper. Much along the idea of the "V" shaped placket in the back of a pair of blue jeans.
The pleats are sewn into the placket with little or no tapering.

Also, the swish factor is minimal when made with the heavier fabrics of a man's kilt. Most Billie type skirts are made from fabrics 10oz or less. 4 and 5 oz is not uncommon.

What you are referring to is called a yoke. Plackets are generally openings such as the opening in the cuff or side of a skirt or front of pants.

[Pleater]

I still have some mini skirts too good to throw away, made of good quality sueded leather.

They would each make quite a good handbag.

The backs are an inch and a half longer than the fronts at the top and curve down to add another inch at the bottom. That is when holding the skirt taut at the top - I'll not get into those again.

It is not uncommon (this being a holiday area) to see women wearing shorts which are obviously new, bought for the holiday, which should really be a good two inches longer at the back.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[CopperNGold]

Your friends knows what she wants, and if you wish to keep her as a friend, I would erase the words 'obscene' or 'obscenity' before speaking to her about it. Her taste in clothing may be completely different from your own, and she could be easily offended.

The idea of having her send a skirt of the length she wishes you to make could solve the problem, and then you can decide whether you wish to continue with the job.

[Bugbear]

Gads!High school gym shorts back in the 70's.........couldn't be 3" or 4" above your knee.
Womens thigh bones are longer than mens if I rememeber correctly.
Think Billie kilt here. lucky you Xman (measuring her) ha ha
In all seriousness, I am interested to know the final measurements, and how to make the damn thing. I have a goal of making all sorts of types of kilts....tradational, dance, military, box etc.for a Saint Andrews Society exhibition and a billie kilt would be the icing on the cake.

I think it is the men's thigh bones that are often proportionally longer than women's in relation to the calf bones, but maybe I have it backwards. Don't know much about tailoring, but have a little bit of experience making ceramic sculptures of human figures.

I'm not an expert though!

[O'Callaghan]

I was amazed when the OP was worried that 6" above the knee might be obscene, so I tried to Google it, but everything that came back was about school dress codes!

FWIW, those varied between 1" and 6" above the knee as a minimum length, and those few that specified a range including a maximum length ALL said the same range, which was 4-6" above the knee (that is, except for one that said the hem musn't scrape on the floor!). From my own schooldays, I think hems had to be in the range of between 3" and 5" above the knee (I was crestfallen when they allowed the girls to wear trousers!), although not being a girl I cannot be sure if those are the right numbers, and I know that many of the girls wore skirts that were both shorter and longer than they were supposed to be.

Anyway, that's all rather OT except that I'm pretty sure that 6" above the knee isn't considered obscene when there are apparently plenty of schools that have put in writing that schoolgirls can wear that length, bearing in mind that they are supposed to be in loco parentis (look it up). Maybe not in YOUR locality, but that's another story.

Of course, that length might be considered obscene for a man in a kilt, for various reasons too delicate to discuss, but that's another matter altogether!

[piperdbh]

It might be worthwhile to have your friend mail you a skirt that she owns and likes, and do your best to copy it.

[Damocles]

I think it is the men's thigh bones that are often proportionally longer than women's in relation to the calf bones, but maybe I have it backwards. Don't know much about tailoring, but have a little bit of experience making ceramic sculptures of human figures.

I'm not an expert though!

you are correct the only perportion bigger on woman is her pelvis

[Bugbear]

you are correct the only perportion bigger on woman is her pelvis

Yes. When you start adding soft tissue... whole different story, though. So very thin leg muscles could make a leg look longer and so on. I have a bunch of plastic models of animels
and so on to use when sculpting, but I usually take lots of measurements of the different sections of the model and look at the ratios.