Confessions........

[Mipi]

I'm also new in kilt making and don't have done much sewing in the past. Making kilt from Tartan is not something for beginner IMHO. But making kilt out of single colored fabric or camo is not such a big deal (with the help of X-kilt tutorial and advice from more experienced mambers).

So go with simple fabric first.

Best regrads!

[Alan H]

You know, what intimidated me was not the sewing, what just seemed impossible to me was setting up the pleats and tapering them....TO SETT. To stripe didn't seem that hard, but pleating to sett seemed hard. So I bought some inexpensive stuff and just figured "what the heck"...and went to it. It was hard but it went OK.


Then Piper George's lady commissioned me to build a tartan kilt for Piper George, which would be pleated to sett, and I gulped hard and said "Okay". thirty-something hours later, dang, but that's a pretty decent looking kilt.

If I can do it, YOU can do it.

[Scratchy's Lass]

it me ::gulp::

Know, I know that 100% hand-sewn is the (for lack of a better phrase) 'purist' way to go...... but I have arm/elbow/wrist/hand/finger problems of the health sort (post bilateral x2 elbow surgery, carpal wrist surgery, blah blah). Thus, I had figured on doing a significant portion of the sewing on a machine.

There's NO way I could w/my crummy fingers and hands do a decent job of hand-sewing EVERYthing.

So....... if one is going to blend hand and machine sewing (albeit even on a 'trainer kilt' heheh.....) what portions/items/sections really must be done by hand, and which are 'ok' by machine, as in, it won't be obvious (if machine sewed properly) ?

Thanks!
m

[Barb T]

The hardest on the fingers is pleating. But it's also the stitching that shows the most if you do it by machine from the outside. The alternative is to stitch each pleat from the _inside_ (the way you'd do for a skirt). This is not easy to do, and you'll likely wind up with a lot of trial and error until you get something that you can be happy with. The two issues are getting the pleat size correct and getting the tartan stripes to match.

Rocky at USAKilts makes his kilts this way so that the pleat stitching doesn't show from the outside, and he is _really good_ at it. Even so, he says he rips out a couple pleats on every kilt.

One of the tricks is to really pull fore and aft on the fabric as you stitch to keep the top from shearing with respect to the bottom. It might also help to use a "walking foot" if you have one, although I can't remember hearing about someone trying this.

[Alan H]

I'd hand-stitch the pleats and machine stitch more-or-less everything else. Well....

Let's do it this way.

1. if you have to blind-stitch and hem the fabric, best to do that by hand.
2. the right-hand edge (the fringed edge) of the over apron can be "stitched in the ditch" and you won't see the stitching as lot as you plan the fold-over carefully. Then you do a few hand stitches at the hem and at the waistband and press the bedickens out of it with an iron and a damp towel and you're good to go.

3. the little tucks and bobs and so on to refine the fit are best done by hand.

4. the interfacing or better...hair canvas that you put in the front can be attached by machine.

5. The reinforcing strip in the back , across the cutout pleats will have to be hand done.

6. the steeking will have to be hand-done

7. attaching the waistband can be done by machine, though.

8. The fold-over and final attachment of the waistband will be hand-done.

9. making the buckle straps can be done by machine, and attaching them can be done by machine. I STRONGLY , STRONGLY encourage you to look into how Matt attaches the buckle for his under-aprons. It's MUCH easier than the traditional method. I make all my tartan kilts that way, now. That has to be hand-done.

Upshot is, you can do some of the kilt by machine and nobody will know. When I make a tartan box pleat, I sew the tapers to each other by machine. I still have to rip one out, but it's so much faster than hand-sewing that it's worth it. I can make a nice, wool, 4 yard box pleat in about 15-18 hours, now.

[sydnie7]

making the buckle straps can be done by machine, and attaching them can be done by machine. I STRONGLY , STRONGLY encourage you to look into how Matt attaches the buckle for his under-aprons. It's MUCH easier than the traditional method. I make all my tartan kilts that way, now. That has to be hand-done.

Short of purchasing one how could a person get a glimpse of this? I've done a lot of reading here lately but don't recall seeing this particular topic.

Or does this tread to dangerously close to "what's under the kilt" territory

[Alan H]

making the buckle straps can be done by machine, and attaching them can be done by machine. I STRONGLY , STRONGLY encourage you to look into how Matt attaches the buckle for his under-aprons. It's MUCH easier than the traditional method. I make all my tartan kilts that way, now. That has to be hand-done.

Short of purchasing one how could a person get a glimpse of this? I've done a lot of reading here lately but don't recall seeing this particular topic.

Or does this tread to dangerously close to "what's under the kilt" territory

Well, basically you're going to make a strap out of tartan material, aligned so that the tartan matches the pattern in the kilt right below the waistband.

OK, so how might you create such a strap, and then put a hole in it for the tang of the buckle? **rhetorical question**

[sydnie7]

Well, basically you're going to make a strap out of tartan material, aligned so that the tartan matches the pattern in the kilt right below the waistband.

OK, so how might you create such a strap, and then put a hole in it for the tang of the buckle? **rhetorical question**

Aligning the tartan implies that this strap is attached to the outside of the front apron? Overlying the fringe as it extends toward the buckle? Or am I mis-imagining the placement of this hypothetical strap with its rhetorical hole.

Thanks for all the advice and food for thought.

[fluter]

I STRONGLY , STRONGLY encourage you to look into how Matt attaches the buckle for his under-aprons.

Short of purchasing one how could a person get a glimpse of this? I've done a lot of reading here lately but don't recall seeing this particular topic.

Or does this tread to dangerously close to "what's under the kilt" territory

There's a picture here. He attaches the buckle to the under-apron, and the strap to the inside of the waistband. Thus there's no "buttonhole" in the waistband; it's buckled under the apron.

[sydnie7]

Now I get it. I was on the wrong hip (so to speak). Thanks greatly for the link, wouldn't have thought to look on the kiltmaker's own site for his secrets

Have a bid in on some nice "fashion" tartan for my first box-pleat attempt. Don't hold your breath waiting for pics, may be well into 2009 if then!