I purchased 8 meters of Xmarks tartan with damaged selvedge. I trimmed off the damaged part and got ready to hem it. After looking at it for a while I remembered I had a blind hem attachment for my machine.

Then I remembered that I had seen a lot of inquiry about hemming kilts. For those that have a machine with a zig zag or blind hem stitch here is a method to quickly make your kilt shorter. I bought this and another attachment at my local sewing machine shop for about twenty bucks.

Start with 8 yards of damaged tartan and trim off the damaged edge. I saved it to use for the waistband on my next kilt (there were only about 4 bites taken out of the selvedge)



The foot in action. I also use this for getting the edge distances consistent on sewn in pleats.



Closeup of the blind hemmer on the right and a quilting foot that I use for other kilt sewing. The spring steel in the center allows you to follow any existing stitch or groove like sewing on a waist band from the outside or setting a little offset to sew down a fell.



Here is 9 yards of hemmed Xmarks. The dimples you see press right out with a little steam to relax where they were sewn. Now and then a stich will peak through or you miss with a few. If you want perfection this method isn't for you. I did it because I'm just making half handsewn kilt for this winter. All hidden seams will be machine sewn. Visible stuff by hand.