I almost titled this thread "A bit more involved than at first glance".
A customer called a week or two ago and inquired if I could resize his Cornish National Tartan Kilt. When he arrived I had him put the kilt on so I could mark it.
What I found is that the customer wants to wear the kilt lower than full rise so the bottom of the Fell and the hem were too low. This also made the kilt too small in the waist.
The customer's first question was "could I hem up the bottom of the kilt?". So I pointed out in the mirror what the back of the kilt looked like with the Bottom of the Fell 2+" below his butt. Once he saw the back he agreed that the solution was to re-build the kilt shortening it from the top down.
I would also let the pleats out to make it fit around him.
I have now been working on this kilt part time for a couple of days. Here is what it looks like right now.
In the upper right you can see the yellow pins marking the original location of the buckles. Lower down you can see the new buckle location.
Now, here is a test ------
Can anyone notice anything strange or different in this kilt?
A hint. Look at how the kilt is pleated.
Can you see the vertical line of yellow pins? That marks the center back of the kilt.
Now look to the right of center. This is how the kilt was pleated by the maker.
Here is the outer apron so you can see the entire Tartan.
Please notice that the center of the apron is a Red line. It is normal for kiltmakers to use the same line in the center of the back.
On this kilt a white line is in the center of the back.
Now please notice that to the right of the vertical line of pins the yellow stripes in the Tartan disappear as the pleats are tapered in the Fell.
So, what I am having to do with this kilt is;
1) Shorten the kilt from the top down so that the bottom of the Fell stays at the crest of the hips.
2) Un-stitch each and every pleat. Re-press it so that the yellow lines are not lost in the tapering.
3) Re-stitch the pleats increasing the size of each pleat to make the kilt larger.
In the above pics you can see where I have re-stitched the pleats from the left to the white center stripe.
Each pleat is incrementally larger.
I have also added the reverse flare above the top buckle so the kilt will fasten on without moving.
And I have re-folded the pleats so that the entire Tartan pattern is retained.
What you do not see in these photos is that when re-pressing the pleats to move the yellow lines I am having to deal with the cut-aways inside the kilt too.
I thought some of you may like to see what is turning out to be a very labor intensive job when all the customer thought he would need is a hem turned up on his Scottish made kilt.
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