Quote Originally Posted by OC Richard View Post
Beautiful kilt!

It is a bit too long, perhaps... I'm used to high-waisted military kilts, so it doesn't look all that long to me.

Anyhow, I myself wouldn't hem it at the bottom, but rather have a kiltmaker remove length from the top. I could be wrong, but my understanding is that removing excess length from the top is the "proper" way. Perhaps a kiltmaker should chime in and set me straight on this point.
The ideal way would be to lose the extra length from the top of the kilt, however this is hardly ever done, as it means virtually taking the entire kilt apart and starting again, which is a very time consuming and consequently expensive.So kilts are usually hemmed at the bottom when they need to be shortened, some people seriously frown on this, but if it is done properly it is virutally invisible and doesn't really affect the hand either. I've hemmed many kilts, and I imagine most of the other kiltmakers on here have as well at one time or another.

There are several ways of doing the actual sewing, but the key thing is to make sure that the stitches do no go through to the front of the fabric, just to catch a single thread or two, and that they are not too tight,and allow the inside layer to move slightly because of the double thickness in the fold of the pleats.
This is the usual way I hem, but it's not the only one