Better too small, or too large?

[Pleater]

I first started to make kilts as I was losing weight and it seemed like a good idea at the time - but after a few months I stopped sewing the tapering of the fell and just pleated the fabric onto the sturdy pieces of webbing I'd found then bound the top edge.

There is tapering as the pleats are fractionally off the straight of the grain, but I suspect that men wouldn't need to bother doing that. I do make reverse Kingussie style pleating, as that suits me better than a row of knife pleats - makes riding a bicycle easier for a start.

If you are going to make a kilt I'd suggest trying a 'simple' aboriginal type and wearing it for a few months before remaking it in the Victorian manner.

I used to make the split of pleats to apron about 50/50 but leave the edges of the aprons unfinished, so that they could be finished once my waist shrank a few inches. My waist shrank 14 inches so I did a lot of remaking of kilts, going from knife, to Kingussie to reverse Kingussie along the way.

Anne the Pleater :ootd: