I don't mention it too often here - but women and girls do wear kilts, and 55 years ago when I was at Junior school a kilt was considered a good sort of skirt to wear at school in the colder months.

Women tended to wear a 27 inch kilt - that is one half of the 54 inch width wool fabric, as was woven on the standard wide looms - in fact 27 inches was a fairly standard length for most skirts.

You might find that for an ankle length garment a good kilt tartan would be too heavy - all garments have grown thinner and lighter in the last 100 years.

A kilt, really should be short - it is a skirt - the word is related to shirt, sarke, curt and cutty - just how skirt came to refer to a woman's garment which for most times and cultures would be ankle length, is not at all clear.

If you go for a long pleated skirt rather than the archetypal kilt you would have greater scope for design, bias cutting or pleating onto a yoke for instance. Lighter fabrics would also allow the use of fashion materials in plaid patterns rather than named tartans. There are also the unrestricted or universal tartans which can be found fairly easily - though sometimes in tiny setts a couple of inches across.

Be warned, though - it is difficult to make just one...

Anne the Pleater :ootd: