contemporary box pleat kilt: an ongoing thread

[Kilted KT]

can't wait to see the in-process pics...I'd love to figure out how to make a kilt....( and find the patience to do so!)

[Alan H]

can't wait to see the in-process pics...I'd love to figure out how to make a kilt....( and find the patience to do so!)

I don't have a digital camera! foooie...or I'd document exactly that! Still and all, I'll be describing every single step in gory detail, so everyone will see what I'm up to.

[Kilted KT]

sometimes the details tell more than just the pics...thanks!

[Alan H]

OK, this morning I worked from about 8:00 - 10:30 on the two kilts, andlast night I washed, dried and pre-ironed the material.. How much time do I have into it?

Washing and drying 4 yards of double-wide cotton/poly heavy twill: 60 minutes for two kilts, but you know, while the washing machine is going you can always do something, else....like design the kilt! Loading the machine, moving the fabric from the washing machine to the dryer, and then taking it out, inspecting it and folding it up took probably fifteen minutes, so we'll say this step took me 15 minutes.

ALWAYS wash (on hot) and dry (on hot) your cotton or cotton/poly material before making your kilt. Get all the shrinkage, and dye leakage done BEFORE you start stitching it up!

OK, this morning I did this:

Lay out material, measure and cut out fabric: 2 kilts, 30 minutes

Lock down/serge the raw edge ( 4 yards) so it won't unravel: 1st kilt, 35 minutes, 2nd kilt 20 minutes, so total was 55 minutes.....call it an hour, 60 minutes.

My Lady's machine has an edge finishing stitch, but I always run in through the machine twice. I really don't want the edge to fray very much! I don't fold it over to hide the raw edge (it's at the bottom of the waistband, 3 inches down from the very top edge of the kilt, and inside of course) because I don't want extra bulk right at that point. I'm guessing that a folded-over edge right there would leave a little bulge in the kilt and besides, my machine will revolt when it hits that line when I'm sewing down the fell. I'd be tryihg to sew through five layers of canvas at thatpoint instead of four. Four is hard enough! Anyway, on the first one I used the serging stitch and then went over that with a zig-zag. The serging stitch eats thread, and is it very slow at moving down the fabric! On the second one I ran a zig-zag along the raw edge, and then went back over it with a tight straight stitch, right down the middle of the zig-zag. That's why it took 20 minutes instead of 35. We'll see if that's as good as the serge/zig-zag at locking down the edge.

OK, this fabric has a non-kilting selvedge, so I'm gonna have to hem these puppies. That means I need to iron up the edge in the right place, so that then I can pin it and stitch in the hem. I also need to measure up from that point( the bottom edge of the kilt) to the top for the kilts drop (length from waistband to hem). At the top I'm folding over the cloth and ironing it down to form the waistband. OK, to measure and stick in pins to define the fold-over edge for the waistband on both kilts.....15 minutes.

On to the ironing board! To iron in the fold-over for the waistband and for the hem at the bottom took me 30 minutes for each one...so an hour for both; 60 minutes.

ONGOING TOTAL: 285 minutes, or four hours and forty-five minutes....remember, I'm making two kilts simultaneously.

[KiltedCodeWarrior]

Alan, looking forward to another excellent series of threads. I am interested in seeing how the time compares between a contemporary, box pleated kilt and your experience with a traditional kilt. Being a confirmed electronics junkie (and packrat!) I actually have an older digital camera laying around. Nothing fancy, but it takes pictures and they can be posted to photobucket or some such. Hit me with a PM and I can work out to get it to you. My donation to the Alan H Kilt Making Research Foundation (AHKMRF)!