Ripping out pleats

[Benning Boy]

Kilt Kampers, Barb, et. al.


It took me an awfully long time to sew just half the pleats into my kilt at Kilt Kamp. I've organized a room and bought some things I need to get back to work on it. However, I'm unhappy with a couple of the pleats I did. the horizontal stripes don't quite line up. Can I just rip out these pleats and re-do them, or do I need to open all the pleats all the way back to the beginning and start over? I really would like to make some progress, not regress, as it takes me so long to hand stitch everything.

[The Wizard of BC]

Yes, you can rip out the stitching you don't like.

And yes, you can rip out only what you don't like as long as you can get your fingers behind the fabric and not sew a bunch of pleats together.

I do this all the time. Every good kiltmaker does. (well, except for Barb, I don't think she has ever made a bad stitch.)

"Don't sweat the small stuff. What is small stuff you ask? Well, if it can't kill you, it's small stuff."

[bonnie heather]

When I do alterations, sometimes it involves un-stitching pleats.
I always use I little pair of embroidery scissors shaped like a stork, because the "beak" blades are nice and skinny, long and pointed. I slide the tip under the stitch to lift it and then snip. My teacher Ann Stewart told me to never, never use a seam ripper because a slip of the hand could rip the tartan fabric.
If the pleat was sewn through the 2 layers of the pleat next to it (not just one layer), you might need to un-stitch that pleat, too.

[plaid preacher]

Hey BenningBoy, nice to hear you haven't given up! I think I will have to rip out a pleat or two as well, from our first day of Kilt Kamp. Befor we left, I watched Barb help someone with that very process. If you have to restitch a pleat that is too far down the pleat to be able to get your fingers in, Barb takes a pair of scissors and opens the back of the pleat enough so you can get your fingers in. You will be cutting that material out after all the pleats are in place anyway. Just be sure that you don't cut down too far.

[Benning Boy]

Thanks for the tip, Bonnie. I know the sort of scissors you mention. My mom, 92, has some inherited from her grandmother. It must be an enduring style. I'll have to buy some, as I otherwise would have used a seam ripper. I tried to take a stitch every twill line. There are a lot to take out.

Reverend Robert, I think Barb showed Thistledubh how to fix pleats as you describe, basically right in front of me, I wish I had paid more attention.

I bought a six-foot table, an Ottlamp with magnifier to go with a regular Ottlamp, some reading glasses that let me focus closer to the work, and Thistledubh sent me some of those great needles, Now I'm ready to get back to work.

[plaid preacher]

LOL... love those needles, but they sure do tear my fingernails to pieces! I could never become a professional kiltmaker... as I would be limited by the growth of my fingernails.

[Steve Ashton]

Benning Boy.

I think your going to find that the scissors like Bonnie describes will not work for you. Our guy fingers are just too big to go through the little handle holes.
I use a spring loaded style that i find works pretty well.



Also note the seam ripper I use. It is actually a scalpel blade. The end is blunt so it does not poke through the fabric.
I can slip the tip into a seam and by holding the blade flat zip out a line of stitches. Only once have I cut through the fabric with this and I was actually trying to do so.