a question

[Cathal_Flameridge]

How many yards of material does a standard tartan kilt need for a size 50 or so waist? I am guessing about 7 yards of material should be enough, but I have read that when making a tartan that they were originally made with 9 yards of material... However I have also seen 8 yard, 5 yard, and 7 yard kilts advertised, so I wasn't sure how much a person with a 50 inch waist should probably be looking at using when making his own first kilt?

As an additional question, how much material is needed for fly plaid's?

[The Wizard of BC]

First a welcome. I know you posted in the newbies section but there can never be too many welcomes to our little corner of the web.

To determine the amount of fabric you will need for a Traditional Style Kilt you do not go by your waist size. You use your hip size.
If your Waist size is actually 50" measured at your natural waist (and not your pants size) Then your Hips will be some where around 56" -58" and you are right on the border between an 8 yard and a 9 yard Kilt.

You then need to know the size of the Sett to get an accurate amount of the yardage.

But in General, a Tank (or Full Traditional, Hand-Stitched, Wool Kilt) you should plan on 4 yards of double width fabric or 8 kilt yards.

For larger hips you may need a little more and for smaller hips you may get away with less.

The 5 yard kilts you see advertised are what are called Casual Kilts and are cheaper because they use less fabric and are usually machine stitched.

A Box Pleated Kilt will use approx. 4 yards of fabric.

All bets are off when talking about Contemporary Kilts and MUGS.

[Canuck]

How many yards of material does a standard tartan kilt need for a size 50 or so waist? I am guessing about 7 yards of material should be enough, but I have read that when making a tartan that they were originally made with 9 yards of material... However I have also seen 8 yard, 5 yard, and 7 yard kilts advertised, so I wasn't sure how much a person with a 50 inch waist should probably be looking at using when making his own first kilt?

As an additional question, how much material is needed for fly plaid's?

You will need at least 4.5 yards of double width cloth or 9 linear yards of single width. a fly plaid I've seen in two sizes 60"x60" or 36"x60"

[Pleater]

If it is to be specifically a tartan, then the size of the sett, the pattern repeat, might determine the minimum length required for a particular size of kilt.

I started out making kilts for myself for a 50 inch waist - it has since reduced quite a lot, and the kilts I made which were rather skimped are now looking better. These would be the 5 and 6 yard ones.

I also worked with fabrics that did not require a particular size of pleat, so I could just fold the whole length of fabric into the pleats.

Once you are using tartans you need to take into consideration how the sett will be placed on the apron - it is usual to have a sett placed centrally, or a prominant stripe of colour, so you need to allow for a bit of wasted fabric to get that right, then there is the style of the pleating to consider - if you are to recreate the sett in the pleats, how many pleats will you be dividing the sett into, or if you are to pleat to a stripe, which one?

There are large pleats at the edges of the aprons, which make moving easier - if you are to be active in the kilt, striding over rugged country for instance, deep pleats are good.

Before deciding how much fabric to buy you need to know the size of the sett, and have a rough idea of how you will be pleating it so as to decide on what running length of cloth you will require. Some tartan cloth can be bought cut from the bolt in one piece and half the full width, 27 inches. Some is only available 54 inches wide, and you would need to allow a little for the matching up of the sett at the join.

I am really tempted to advise that you try a kilt in a plain fabric first, so you can get a feel for the method and how much fabric it takes to make a kilt that is comfortable for you, even if it is just a torn up sheet pleated onto duct tape.

Pleats really eat up the cloth, it is surprising, and adding in shaping on the one side of the under apron and both sides of the apron - that is at least a foot of fabric just to put in two inches of shaping.

I still use 8 yards for a plain kilt despite losing 12 inches off my waist, so if you still plan to go straight in and do a tartan kilt - even if it is an expensive tartan, and particularly if it has a large sett, go the whole nine yards - that is 4 and 1/2 yards of the 54inch wide material so that you can be fairly sure of not having to compromise on the construction due to lack of materials.

You might not get all that length in the finished kilt, but you should get the pattern properly placed on the apron and pleats if you have that much to work with.

[Jerry]

For my Macneill "Tank", and 47" hips, it required a full 9 yards of Macneill of Barra, ancient tartan.

[Barb T]

If your Waist size is actually 50" measured at your natural waist (and not your pants size) Then your Hips will be some where around 56" -58" and you are right on the border between an 8 yard and a 9 yard Kilt.

Actually, I disagree with Steve. I start to consider a 9 yard kilt when the hips are more than 44". If your hips are more than 50", most tartans (in 16 oz) have a big enough sett (more than 6-7") that you really can't make it with 8 yards.

Well, actually, you _could_, but here's the issue. With a typical sett for a 16 oz tartan, you're likely to be able to get somewhere around 25-27 pleats out of an 8 yard length for someone with hips in the 40-44" range. If the hips are more like 50-56", you need to reserve more for the apron and underapron, and you lose a few setts, so you'd have fewer pleats. Say you had 23 pleats. If the back were 28" across at the hips, each pleat would be more than an inch and a quarter across. If you're OK with that, you can get away with 8 yards. But I don't like pleats that big. By adding an additional yard to the kilt, you could get 4 additional pleats if the sett were 7-8", and the pleats would look more normal in size.

You can also get more pleats into a kilt if you pleat to the stripe than to the sett, so, if I have a limited amount of yardage for a kilt, I'll typically suggest pleating to the stripe. So, that's a solution as well.

So, when I said above that I start to consider a 9 yard kilt at 44" hips, I do a little quick figuring depending on the sett size and whether someone wants the kilt pleated to the sett or the stripe.

[Cathal_Flameridge]

I am really tempted to advise that you try a kilt in a plain fabric first, so you can get a feel for the method and how much fabric it takes to make a kilt that is comfortable for you, even if it is just a torn up sheet pleated onto duct tape.

Actually I was thinking of doing just that. I really think that getting the feel of making the kilt would help alot. Thanks for the advice.

Also thank you everyone else for the advice, it has really helped