First "traditional" kilt project

**vorpallemur** · 19th June 09, 12:50 PM

One thing that's used as hem weights in various tailoring and couture applications are lead fishing weights.

**Heming** · 19th June 09, 02:23 PM

OK, show's on. Sort of.

I spent most of this evening preparing myself and my fabric for the First Kilt Making Experience. This is my report, divided into good and bad news:

Good news: I practiced my hand stitching on a scrap, and am now able to sew an invisible seam fairly quickly.

Bad news: Even with a walking foot, my sewing machine refused to let me match the pattern exactly. No amount of pins and/or basting helped. Every single stitch on this kilt will be by hand.

Good news: I have enough fabric. I bought 6 meters double width - and pleated to the Very Special Cheating Stripe this kilt will have about 10 meters of fabric in it (27 pleats).

Bad news: It was absolutely impossible to rip the fabric. I have spent the last half hour very carefully cutting the fabric lengthwise.

Good news: Checked patterns with red and black have stripes that are easy to follow with scissors.

Bad news: The fabric isn't wide enough to give me a center scrap to use for the waist band. Unless I'm very lucky, the waistband won't match the pattern on the apron. I might just go for a black waistband.

Good news: Only had to cut once, as the fabric had to be split in the exact center.

Bad news: My dog very much wanted to help cut the fabric.

Good news: I have an obedient dog. I told her to find her ball and go to bed - and she did.

Bad news: The loom must have been acting up when they wove this fabric - there are quite a few very ugly flaws (loops, loose ends and piques) on half of the fabric.

Good news: The flaws are on the wrong side of the fabric, most of them will be hidden in the pleats, and only one minor flaw will be on the wrong side of the under-apron.

Bad news: This has taken hours. The sun's setting, so I'll have to wait till tomorrow before I mark the pleats.

Good news: I'm very well prepared.

Good news: I've had time to listen to Philip Glass's very excellent symphony "Einstein on the Beach" while all this went on, streamed legally from spotify.com. Thank God for European copyright laws.

Good news: My parrots, who usually sing along to any music played, apparently don't like Philip Glass and kept quiet all evening.

Good won today. Will keep you posted about tomorrow (with pictures!)

**Pleater** · 21st June 09, 12:47 PM

Although you can't machine stitch the pleats you might be able to do the hem on the machine.

I started out sewing every bit by hand, but these days I do tend to do at least the hem and the first seam of the waistband on the machine, and probably the under apron edge as well.

Any straight seam or fold is usually fine on the machine, but a rigid fabric will never cooperate where one part has to be eased in to fit the other part.

I have had a few fabrics which had faults in, but they are very hard to spot once the kilt was made. On some I have been able to draw out the extra thread which had got caught up, pull it through to the inside of the kilt and snip it off, leaving two small tails, then close up the gap it left by tweeking the threads with a thin needle or pin.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

**Heming** · 21st June 09, 10:27 PM

OK... I've marked the pleats, basted the apron edges and stitched 17 out of 27 pleats. It's by no means perfect, but I think it's rather good for a first try. My hand stitching skills are really limited, so I'm feeling very proud!

I'm hoping I'll finish the last ten pleats in two days' time, and after that there's just the rest left!

You may notice that I've broken a rule and basted with bright green instead of white. White thread just didn't show up very well on a pattern with so much white in it... Oh, and the pin is holding the button hole tightly shut.

**Heming** · 10th July 09, 02:31 AM

Hi all,

It's been a while since I let you know how this is going. We had a burst of early summer here, so I wallowed in the sun, and now I'm moving house, so little work is done on the kilt. But I've stitched over half of the pleats now (no picture yet, sorry), and feel that I'm well on the way (head in a cloud).

I've found out that the buckles I have, though VERY sturdy, are narrower than what Barb T. recommends in the book. Does it matter much if I use 3/4 inch straps (two straps)? Will it look silly and/or affect function?

Also, I've just finished my vest from the Folkwear vest and PC coatee pattern. Haven't tried the jacket pattern yet, but at least the vest pattern was easy to follow and had only one flaw: The instruction for the pockets are way off. I decided not to make passepoille (sp?) pockets anyway, so I used a common tailor's cheat and made a pocket flap without a pocket. I don't own a pocket watch, and I don't know what else I'd keep in a vest pocket... If anyone else is struggling with these pockets, PM me for usable instructions...

**Barb T** · 10th July 09, 12:12 PM

Originally Posted by Heming

I've found out that the buckles I have, though VERY sturdy, are narrower than what Barb T. recommends in the book. Does it matter much if I use 3/4 inch straps (two straps)? Will it look silly and/or affect function?

If you put on only two buckles (i.e., the apron edge has only the waist buckle and not a hip buckle), the kilt belt completely covers the buckles and straps when you're actually wearing the kilt, so the buckles and straps could be pink with rhinestones, and no one would know!

If you add a hip buckle, and the kilt is a man's kilt, a 3/4" strap is going to look a bit like the strap on a ladies' kilt skirt. So, my solution (in order not to have to buy new buckles and straps) would be to skip the hip buckle, which you don't need anyway.

**tulloch** · 10th July 09, 12:38 PM

Persevere! We are rooting for you. Great to hear it coming together.

**Heming** · 11th July 09, 01:06 AM

Hm... Pink with rhinestones... You know, that reminds me of something Dolly Parton said: "I leave no rhinestone unturned".

I'll only use two straps, so I'll go with the ones I have. After all, the buckles cost US$ 10 a piece (not joking). I won't often be wearing a belt, though, As I'm almost always in a jacket and waistcoat with a kilt, but the jacket will cover the straps anyway. And I don't think most Norwegians will know that the straps are 8 mm. too narrow.

I shall now proceed to plaster my kitchen wall.

**Heming** · 11th July 09, 01:10 AM

post deleted

**Heming** · 2nd September 09, 12:49 PM

The kitchen is done (yay!), so I've had opportunity to work on the kilt.

I think my previous sewing experience has me thinking backwords when it comes to kiltmaking. I do follow the book, but occasionally I fall into old habits. Like padding:

This is ten rows of padding, and I realise now the book asks for four... I don't know if I've "ruined" the kilt, but picking out six rows of padding won't take a lifetime. How say the experts among us?

Anyway, I've noticed the right side of the fell now looks like this:

i.e. a bit crooked, where they were straight(er) before pad-o-rama.

Otherwise I'm very happy with this:

and the under-apron edge is better after I smoothed out the curves a bit:

In other news: I'm in progress of slaughtering a sports coat that's always been to big - planning to re-use the interfacings and shoulder pads for my Prince Charlie coatee. Don't know yet if I can salvage the chest pieces, but the shoulder pads and armhole canvas are OK. And I now have some nice, black buttons looking for a new jacket... Maybe I'll get out my rulers and make myself an argyll pattern (giving up on finding a pre-made pattern).