Adjusting Waist size?

[Barb T]

Enlarging a kilt means enlarging the apron and the underapron *on both sides*. You can't just add to the fringe edge, for example, because that would force the center stripe off-center. The real issue is whether there's even enough tartan in the kilt to do this. It depends on how much the kiltmaker put into the fringe edge facing, whether the facing edge is pieced or not, and how deep the first "deep pleat" next the the pleats is. While you can tell the latter, you can't tell the former until you've unstitched the apron edge.

If the first pleat is not deep, you may not be able to enlarge the kilt. You can't simply take out pleats to get additional material, because the pleats are all cut out.

And, to be honest, you never really know what you're going to find inside a kilt (unless you made it yourself originally) until you start taking it apart. Many kilts can't be altered at all, sometimes because they have already been altered as much as they can be.

If you determined that you do, in fact, have enough material, then you have to take off the lining and canvas, undo the apron and underapron edges (both sides - taking out the facing edge plus unstitching the apron and underapron from the pleats). Then, you re-make the apron and underapron, keeping the center stripe of the apron in the center, put the canvas and lining back on, etc.

BTW - Wally's option #2 above only works if you actually have some matching tartan on hand or if you have a hidden pleat on the apron edge of the kilt and a huge inverted pleat. Remember that you use up at least a full sett to make a pleat - if your deep pleat uses 9" of fabric, which is typical, using most of that for a new pleat leaves you nothing for the deep pleat unless you have a hidden pleat that's storing the required amount of fabric. If you actually had to have a separate piece of fabric to add two pleats, you might need as much as a yard of extra fabric in order to be able to not only match the pleat that you need in the right place in the tartan and have enough for four joins, one on each side of the two pleats you'd have to add. And you'd have to re-do the buttonhole and move the buckles in either case.

This is not a small job, and anyone who knows how to do it right should charge you quite a bit to do it. If they don't charge a fair amount ($150 or more wouldn't be unreasonable at all), you might be suspicious that they don't know what they're doing!

[Leprechaun 91]

Thank you so much for taking the time to give such a complete and detailed answer. As one who can do little more than hem pants and stitch buttons I had no idea just how much (math.... Work.... detail.) go into the custom tailored kilt. I have even more respect than I ever did for the Artists who do this work.

What a far cry from pleating a strip of cloth and rolling up in it. Maybe our ancestors were onto something with the old "great kilt."

Well... That all sounds like my best bet might be to save up for a few more months and just invest in a new kilt. The original could be an heirloom to hand down to one of my kids I guess.

Funny how when we are young, we think we will never change for the worse... Oh Well. I have no regrets about my purchase from Geoffrey Tailor. A wonderful company to work with as one who (at the time) had never had anything tailored at all.

I guess the question is.... Who will make my next one? I really want a traditional.

I found a link recently for somebody who would make me a kilt with my own provided fabric for $200.00 US. From what I can tell about the work that goes into a Kilt, that sounds too cheap. Any Ideas?

[Barb T]

If you want a custom made kilt that's made properly, it will take the kiltmaker about 20 hours to make an 8-yard trad kilt (more if they work slowly or are inexperienced). A kiltmaker who charges $200 in labor and other materials (that would be buckles, straps, lining, and canvas) is either willing to work for very low wages or is not doing all the internal construction or quality workmanship that you would want in a custom made kilt.

You can use this forum to find reputable kiltmakers. I take custom orders, as does Matt Newsome - we're both members of this forum, and there are lots of reviews of our kilts in these pages. You can PM either of us. Kathy Lare in Albuquerque has also made kilts that members of this forum greatly admire.