First X-Kilt pics

[Tartan Hiker]

Here is my youngest son and I in our X-Kilts. His is digital desert camo, while mine is the digital woodland. The pattern sure makes it hard to see the details (duh...it's camoflauge!)
My oldest son was wearing my other digital desert x-kilt, but was fast asleep when the photo was made and I didn't have the heart to wake him up.



Here's a close-up of the front apron without the sporran. The front edge doesn't actually droop...must be the camera angle. Can you see my ceramic St. Andrew's Cross kilt pin? The belt is a nylon web belt made to be used with chest waders.



Here's a shot of the rear. Still hard to see the box pleats with the camo pattern. Oh, well...can't see any wrinkled pleats either



Finally, here's the first pleat. That's a full 17" of material inside that pleat, which really adds freedom of movement without causing apron issues (I made this to be a hiking kilt, after all).



And yes...that's my brand new snake skin knee brace. I've got to wear this for the next year whenever I hike or do anything stressful, so I figured that I may as well have fun with it (and this pattern should go with all my kilts ).

[Tartan Hiker]

Folowing up on the previous post...

Digital camo is great to work with . All those little boxes are made of parallel lines, so chalking is minimized...just cut on the lines!

Thanks to Alan for the inspiration and the fine manual detailing the manufacture of the X-kilt casual. I diverged but little from his manual (my first and last pleats are much deeper), and I have now switched completely to a press-and-sew method rather than pinning (the last two kilts I made never saw a single straight pin...a real time-saver).

Link to Alan's manual:
http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=20085

I'm working on a solid olive green X-Kilt...will post pics when completed.

Bill

[HeathBar]

Great looking kilts TH. I really like the digital camo. What was the event you were attending? Looks like you're in front of an archery display.

[Tartan Hiker]

Homecoming at Warren Wilson College (a small liberal arts school near Asheville), oddly enough. The women's soccer team was playing on the adjoining field, and there were tents set up for food and vendors, all of whom were in some way part of the college community.
I make traditional archery supplies (arrows, strings, leather goods) and that is my arrow display and string-making set-up. My wife is a beading hobbyist and she was there selling bracelets.
I had several folks interested in ordering kilts from me. I'm not sure I want to get into yet another sideline business, but ....

Bill

[Alan H]

Folowing up on the previous post...

Digital camo is great to work with . All those little boxes are made of parallel lines, so chalking is minimized...just cut on the lines!

Thanks to Alan for the inspiration and the fine manual detailing the manufacture of the X-kilt casual. I diverged but little from his manual (my first and last pleats are much deeper), and I have now switched completely to a press-and-sew method rather than pinning (the last two kilts I made never saw a single straight pin...a real time-saver).

Link to Alan's manual:
http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=20085

I'm working on a solid olive green X-Kilt...will post pics when completed.

Bill

Do you find that the super-deep "leading edge pleat" depth really gets rid of those annoying "pooches"? I deepend the "leading edge" pleats from 1.5 inches in prototypes #1,2, and 3 to 3 inches in #4 and that seemed to work out. We'll see what KCW has to say. Maybe moving 'em up to 6-8 inches on both sides of the left-hand over-apron fold is even better!

The digital camo looks excellent!!!! WELL DONE. If you get requests to make X-Kilts commerically, then GO for it.

[toadinakilt]

well, i have a 5-yard black denim kilt in the works, 10 knife pleats, 6 inches deep...and i have another 5 yards of denim waiting to turn into another kilt. this post and alan's have convinced me to tackle the X-Kilt next! i do like box pleats...

[chasem]

Those kilts looks fantastic!

Quick question, what's a good source for some decent weight camo material?

Two of my cousins have given me some crap (in jest, of course) about wearing a kilt, and both turned around a few minutes later [each on seperate occasions] to say that they'd wear one if they could get one in camo. So, of course, I had to offer to make them one ><

[keepoffgrass]

great work! Im gunna have to try my hand at an xkilt myself one of these days. my sister just taught me how to run the sewing machine the other day.

[turpin]

I like the digital better than the other camo patterns. I'm partial to the tartan trads, but tried on a digital in a trad style over the weekend and liked it for the light weight. But how much swing will it develop?

[Tartan Hiker]

The fabric came from the local Hancock fabric store...I think it's a chain, but it's probably one of those hot-or-miss things. I don't know any online or mail-order sources. The fabric I used is 100% cotton and is a knock-off of the "marpat" patterns. I'm keen to get some genuine USMC rip-stop, but haven't found a source for that yet.

Interestingly the woodland fabric is stiffer than the desert...it seems to have some kind of coating on the back that stiffens it. Neither develop the kind of swing that you expect from a knife-pleated wool kilt, but they certainly don't wear like a cardboard tube either.

For active wear (hiking, trail work, etc.) they should work just fine...certainly tough enough to stand up to considerable abuse and not prone to fly up in a breeze. I'm looking forward to the day when I can really put them through their paces.

I did have a young lady at the local community college (where I teach) say as I passed that my desert camo was "the coolest kilt I've ever seen".

Bill