X-Marks Tartan for My Son

[The F-H.C.A.G.]

...need all the guidance I can get.

Could you tell us the size of the sett of your run of the tartan and also the measurements you're making up to, so that I can get some idea of scale in your pleating pic?...

Please don't look to me for too much guidance-for example, I didn't measure anything-I just held the material up to the boy, pinned a set of pleats while eyeballing it, held it up again, removed all the pins and started again-repeating until it looked good and the apron had a sett fairly well centered.

I'll go measure now...

The sett on this run of tartan is 7 inches. I believe the new run is going to be somewhat larger.

As laid out above, there are 32 inches, pleated down from about 116 inches of material. It is 17 inches long, and I am going to fold the waistband over the top-so will not be adding any length. To be honest, I don't know how deep the pleats are-I just kept redoing them until they looked right. Let's measure...3 1/2 inches. Also, there is no taper to this kilt, since 6-year-olds don't have hips or "rumps" so much. I have no clue how to taper-but I will learn someday soon.

This is how I have always sewn-I don't know the terminology, either for sewing in general or kilt crafting, and I generally just grab an example of what I want to make and deconstuct it to figure out how it is done. As a result, I am a rather poor instructor. "I just worked on it until it looked right" is not exactly a useful answer to "How did you make that?". Apparently, Panache does his woodworking in the same way-sorry AlanH and W2F-your sgian dubhs may be a long time coming.

Still, I will continue to post my progress (and set-backs) here.

Be well,

[sjrapid]

Thanks, F-H.C.A.G!

Please don't look to me for too much guidance-for example, I didn't measure anything-I just held the material up to the boy, pinned a set of pleats while eyeballing it, held it up again, removed all the pins and started again-repeating until it looked good and the apron had a sett fairly well centered.

But this is good, useful information! You're saying that you don't have to be too fussed about precise numbers and measuring everything to the n'th, and that doing it 'by eye' works for you. Please keep this sort of comment coming!

I'll go measure now...

The sett on this run of tartan is 7 inches. I believe the new run is going to be somewhat larger.

As laid out above, there are 32 inches, pleated down from about 116 inches of material. It is 17 inches long, and I am going to fold the waistband over the top-so will not be adding any length. To be honest, I don't know how deep the pleats are-I just kept redoing them until they looked right. Let's measure...3 1/2 inches.

That makes total sense on a 7-inch set pleated to no-stripe.

Also, there is no taper to this kilt, since 6-year-olds don't have hips or "rumps" so much. I have no clue how to taper-but I will learn someday soon.

My nephew (8 yrs) has the same seat and waist measurement, so I guess the same (taper=0) would apply to me (or him!)

This is how I have always sewn-I don't know the terminology, either for sewing in general or kilt crafting, and I generally just grab an example of what I want to make and deconstuct it to figure out how it is done. As a result, I am a rather poor instructor. "I just worked on it until it looked right" is not exactly a useful answer to "How did you make that?".

I'd say it is both a good and a useful answer. I'm not really looking for formal instruction here - I feel like I'm closer to someone asking a senior student if they'd mind showing me their work on a different assignment, (Sinbad will not be the same size as my nephew Joshua) so I can get tips on the general approach and learn any gotchas (like your tip on sewing pleats from the bottom of the fell up - thanks!) before I fall into the same problem.

Like you, I don't have the correct terminology for sewing or kiltmaking (though I do have a copy of Barb T's book on order via Matt Newsome), so your 'generalist' approach to naming things and describing things is helpful. I'm trying to work by scaling down from my 9-yard tank, so your tips on what works for kilts for boys are good.

One final question - what is the ratio of apron to pleats on this kilt? Or put another way, what's Sinbad's waist, and how wide is the pleated section you've made so far? You've told us that the layed-out fabric pleated is 32 ins, but presumaby this includes both aprons? On my tank, its 1:1 (width of front apron = width of pleats at waistband). What numbers have you come up with for Sinbad's kilt?

I'd concur with the suggestion that you qualify for free drinks from any X-Marker you meet. Let me know if you're ever in London!

Best regards