42w 45h split

[Twrecks911]

Figuring out a good split is giving me a headache. It seem that a waist to hip difference of only 3 inches doesn't give me much room to play with. With a 42w and 45 hip, I think a w split of 21.5/20.5 and h split of 22/23 is about the best. Thoughts?

[Barb T]

Depends on how you did your hip measurement. If you have a bit of a tum, don't measure your hips directly over your pants. Take a towel and kind of fill the space under your tummy, and measure around your hips in the back and around the towel in the front. That will give you a hip measurement that will let the kilt apron hang straight down from your waist in the front and give you some room to taper the pleats and tuck the kilt into the small of your back. Then, split the hip measurement evenly, and things will be good. Here are a couple pics.

In the kilt below, the hips were measured directly around the body. As a consequence the kilt fits around the waist at the top and under the belly around the hips - there isn't enough in the hips for the kilt to hang straight down. Because the hips are snug, the kilt is an odd tilted cylinder, and the pleats don't hang straight - the first pleat flops forward.



Here is THE SAME GUY in a kilt where inches were added to the hip measurement to make sure that the apron hangs straight down in the front. The easiest way to do this is to measure using the "towel method" described above. And you'll notice that he looks a LOT slimmer!!

[Twrecks911]

That towel method sounds like a good idea. So, I came up with a 47.5 in hip with the towel method (I think it looked about right, according to my girlfriend). So, I have 42 w 21 split apron 21.5 pleats 20.5
47.5h 23.75 split. You said to keep the hip even, so 23.75 for both the apron and pleats. Does this sound like a good ratio?

[The Wizard of BC]

Remember that the hip splits are kinda dependent on your pleats. For example if your pleats are 1 inch wide you will have the rear hip split in 1 inch increments.

And also remember that if you plan to pleat to Sett you really want an odd number of pleats.

The rear hip split should be slightly greater in the back than in the front.
The waist split is greater in the front.

[Barb T]

That towel method sounds like a good idea. So, I came up with a 47.5 in hip with the towel method (I think it looked about right, according to my girlfriend). So, I have 42 w 21 split apron 21.5 pleats 20.5
47.5h 23.75 split. You said to keep the hip even, so 23.75 for both the apron and pleats. Does this sound like a good ratio?

Sorry for the delay - I was traveling back from Kilt Kamp!

You might want to go for a little more "tuck-in" at the waist in the back (22" apron, 20" pleats). That would give you a little less shaping on the edge of the apron, which I think would be good for your measurements. But if you have a flat rump, the original ones you have above would be fine.

If you're using TAoK instructions, you determine the hip size first, and then lay out the pleats. The last thing you do is figure out your pleat size, which is governed by the hip split in the pleats, by the pleating you've chosen, and by how much tartan you have, not vice versa.

[Twrecks911]

Thanks for the advice Barb. I am hoping to attend Kilt Kamp next year. I got in on the newest weaving of Scottish Wildcat, which I might save for KK, if I do get in.