A few questions before I tear into this tartan...

[Celtic Mom]

Hello everyone,

I am planning my 7 year old's dancing kilt, and I have a few questions that I would like to pose before I really get going (and then I'm sure many more after I get going . I have TAoK, and I made a "practice kilt" while I was waiting for her tartan out of cotton twill. I learned a lot and made some mistakes that I'm glad I made with the cotton rather than the tartan. This is my daughter wearing the practice kilt in a Fourth of July parade.

I made the practice kilt with the following measurements:
Apron Pleats
Waist - 21.5" 11.5" 10"
Hips - 26" 12.5" 13.5"

My first question is the practice kilt seemed to fit her just right, but I want to get a decent life out of an actual tartan kilt. Should I make the kilt to these measurements? I was contemplating adding 0.5" to both the waist and hips measurement. Also, are there any suggestions to the split measurements?

My second question has to do with the tartan and the hem. This is the tartan, Dress MacRae of Conchra from Tartantown. I have been digging through the forums, and read Barb's post urging caution(thank you Barb!) due to some dress tartans not being as opaque as others, and the black line on this one definitely needs careful placement, especially where the black intersects. My initial thought was to do a 2.5" hem which would have put the small black line at the bottom of the hem, but I would prefer to have the hem where the 5.5" mark is, I think it would look better, and have more length to let out since the selvedge is not a kilting selvedge I would only have about 1.5 inches to let down with the first option. Is 5.5" too much to put into a hem? If so would it be plausible (or recommended) to tear the selvedge off to reduce bulk?

Thank you, without this forum I would not have the courage to attempt this!
Carrie