a kilt to make for the lady in your life

**Barb T** · 20th November 12, 04:25 PM

Hi all,

I posted this awhile back in a different category, but I thought I'd post it here for any of you DIY-ers who are looking for something kilt-ish to make for the holidays for the lady in your life. It's a nice alternative to a trad kilt, but you can essentially use the instructions that are in The Art of Kiltmaking for the construction. The main difference is the actual layout, and I'll detail that a bit below.

But first, the pics. Our daughter is a piper and a Highland dancer, and she is awash in trad kilts - she has 2 Air Force tartan kilts, a Ferguson kilt, a Wallace kilt, a MacGillivray kilt (both of the latter from pipe bands she's played in), and an Antarctica kilt (for Highland dance). What she wanted was a kilt she could wear that would sit lower and fall below her knee.

Below, you'll see a view fore and aft of me wearing her kilt (she and I are about the same size, although she's a little taller, so it won't be quite as long on her as it is on me in the pics below).

You can see in the pic below that the kilt sits about 2" below the waist.

The pics above show a shirt tucked in, because I wanted to show the top of the kilt. But this kilt looks great with a shirt over top, as you can see in the pic below. This is a great (and very comfortable!) option for the lady in your life who wants something more kilt-like than skirt-like but who doesn't want the rise up under her rib cage. And even thought it's made in 16 oz tartan, it doesn't feel heavy or bulky.

OK - so how did I lay this kilt out? I started by taking normal waist and hip measurements, but I took an additional measurement at the level where she wanted the top of the kilt to be. Then I figured out the depth of the fell by figuring out what the fell would be if I were making a regular length kilt with a normal 2" rise. I then subtracted the 2" rise plus the amount below the waist where she wanted the kilt to ride. So, for hers, the fell _would_ have been about 8". I subtracted the normal rise above the waist (-2") and the amount below the waist (another -2"). So, I laid the kilt out with a 4" fell and the revised circumference. As she said, "Awwwww...it's a cute little baby fell!" Now there's a girl who knows her kilts.....Anyway, I then added the extra length to the bottom, and everything worked out. So, in short, I figured out what the kilt _would_ have been like as a trad kilt and modified it from there.

I made this kilt to open on the right, as all of her other kilts do, because that's the way she wanted it. Because this is a Kingussie kilt with knife pleats that are completely symmetrical on either side of the central box pleat (the "tail pleat"), you could easily reverse the aprons and put the fringe on the left.

A kilt like this could be pleated using any style. This one has Kingussie pleating, but you could also do a box pleated kilt, which would use less tartan, or a full set of knife pleats, which would take more tartan. If you are interested in reading more about how to do the Kingussie pleating you can go to the following thread:

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...t-woman-75461/

**Cygnus** · 20th November 12, 04:37 PM

A super-informative thread, as always. Thank you, Barb!

I'm especially glad of the link you provided that I didn't recall seeing before - I am a fan of the Kingussie style and found the discussion of arranging the pleats to be very interesting.