Pleated Tartan Skirt, Where do I start?

[Doomsday]

I'd like to make a tartan skirt for my wife. I was wondering, what are the differences between a "skirt" and a "kilt" when it come to sewing it. Would someone out there be able to give me some direction?

[Alan H]

Sure.
I've just disassembled two "real" tartan skirts so that I could get the material. I'll be combining the tartan from the two skirts together to make one almost 8-yard length out of which I will make myself a kilt. The tartan is Grey Stewart and the sett size is about 4.5 inches.

I'm also banging together some 3-yard miniskirts. The tartan is Lindsay, the sett size is a tich over 7 inches, and these have about 11-12 pleats for ladies with 40-48 inch hips.

The "real" skirts had about 4 yards of material in each of them. One was 26 inches in length, the other was 28 . The Luminous Joans Dress Blue Stewart skirt is 26 inches. Thse are "below the knee" skirts, and conservative, somewhat dressy skirts..

14 inch skirts are pretty darned mini unless they're hip-huggers and ride low, and even then they are small. Well, not on a 7-year old girl they're not but on an adult, they are. 18 inches is short and fun and show a lot of leg on an adult but not what most would consider racy. So "miniskirts" will usually fall somewhere in between the 14 - 18 inch length. If the lady has long legs, err on the longer side.

4- yard skirts will make up with plenty of pleats on a smallish womans frame if the sett isn't too big. The grey stewart skirts had about 20-22 pleats in them, were pleated to the stripe and looked nice. The pleat reveals were about an inch, which obviously means, considering the sett size, that the pleats weren't all that deep.

The Lindsay miniskirts have 10-12 pleats, with 2-inch reveals on a sett that's 7 inches deep. If I were making a more traditional and conservative kilt skirt out of this Lindsay stuff I'd need at least another yard and a half for each skirt, so that the skirt had more like 18 - 20 pleats with one-inch reveals. They would be gorgeous, though, since those pleats would be *really* deep.

The lesson to take home from all that is to think about the purpose of the skirt you're making and then find out what the sett size is before you order the cloth. Check with the lady for whom you're making the skirt.

The grey stewart skirts closed with fabric covered buttons on the waistline, and three more that ran down the length of the fell at the edge of the over-apron. The over-apron edge was not fringed. The Luminous Joans Stewart skirt has buckles on the over-apron edge just like a Mans kilt except that the buckles and straps are smaller. The over-apron edge is fringed. The under-apron is attached with a 1-inch wide, three inches long strip of velcro.

So fringe the edge if you want...use straps/buckles if you want...or don't! Oh, and none of the skirts have/had belt loops. They do have a smallish reverse pleat on the left side,however.

The miniskirts I'm making will close with velcro; no straps. The edges of the over-apron aren't fringed...no reverse pleat. These are really simple skirts,though I think they will look quite nice..

Finally, a kilt skirt opens on the LEFT side, not the right side. The pleats run the same way,though.

In short, there are RULES

**insert sound of kindergarden teacher thwapping knuckles with a ruler, here***

...about making a kilt. Ya gotta do it THIS way. The fell has to be THIS long and the fringe has to be like THAT and so on. If it's not JUST SO, then *ahem* "real kiltmakers" will look down on your non-traditional creation. Not so with kilt skirts, the "rules" are a lot looser.

Remember that most womens hips taper a LOT more than a mans do. A kilt skirt is amazingly inexpensive to purchase off of ebay. I die every time I look at the prices. You might just buy one for $20 and get it shipped home. Look it over with extreme care, and learn how it's made. Then get it dry cleaned. THEN make your skirt for your wife. She'll have two kilt skirts, and you'll know how they're made.

[Kid Cossack]

Finally, a kilt skirt opens on the LEFT side, not the right side. The pleats run the same way,though.

In short, there are RULES

**insert sound of kindergarden teacher thwapping knuckles with a ruler, here***

...about making a kilt. Ya gotta do it THIS way. The fell has to be THIS long and the fringe has to be like THAT and so on. If it's not JUST SO, then *ahem* "real kiltmakers" will look down on your non-traditional creation. Not so with kilt skirts, the "rules" are a lot looser.

Remember that most womens hips taper a LOT more than a mans do. A kilt skirt is amazingly inexpensive to purchase off of ebay. I die every time I look at the prices. You might just buy one for $20 and get it shipped home. Look it over with extreme care, and learn how it's made. Then get it dry cleaned. THEN make your skirt for your wife. She'll have two kilt skirts, and you'll know how they're made.

Quoting Walter Sobchak:

Walter Sobchak: [shouting] Has the whole world gone crazy? Am I the only one around here who gives a (darn) about the rules? Mark it zero!

[Doomsday]

Thanks Alan H. It's a good Start.