Thanks to all for the information. When i have a few spare moments (!) I'll try to start modifying the SWK.

Hemming anything reminds me of when my mom went on an "I'm going to get serious about sewing" binge back when I was a kid. Besides the SERIOUS SINGER SEWING MACHINE she got some bizarre contraption that had a standing ruler and a hose with a bulb on the end...you set a little thingy at the height of the hem that you wanted and turned around while squeezing the bulb...this pufffed little horizontal lines of chalk dust around the skirt at exactly the correct level...take off the skirt and proceed to connect the dots to hem it. Sound like a gizmo? Fortunately tartan seems to have the lines in it already so we can dispense with the little gizmo.

Let's hope the suprise continues to be a suprise.

best

AA