X-Marks Tartan for My Son

**Tartan Hiker** · 9th February 07, 03:30 PM

Originally Posted by Dreadbelly

A free drink from any XMarker she meets?

You can count me in on that one!!

**The F-H.C.A.G.** · 9th February 07, 04:50 PM

Originally Posted by Dreadbelly

A free drink from any XMarker she meets?...

Originally Posted by Tartan Hiker

You can count me in on that one!!

I knew I liked you guys for a reason! That's two drinks...Next! That reminds me of a redhead joke...maybe another time. I have more pictures-remember I said I would post the set-backs as well as progress? Well, here goes.

Sewing up the inner edges of the pleats

A close up of the pleats-it's hard to see well, the line of stitching

This shows the difference between the sewn pleats and those that are not-note how the pleats on the right lay flat and the others kind of stick out

Sewing down the pleats-starting from the waist line and proceeding down-don't do it this way!

Because if you do it this way, the pattern does not quite line up-partly because of how the foot of the sewing machine pushes the fabric-this picture does not show it well-it was much more glaring "in person". Also, when I tried it against Sinbad, it turned out I had sewn down too far anyway

So, here I am ripping out the sewn down pleats. Next time I will sew from the bottom up, more slowly, and possibly by hand-tomorrow, though, not today

So, how about those drinks?

Be well,

**McMurdo** · 9th February 07, 04:55 PM

Nice pics and write up I am sure Sinbad will love it when you are done, thanks for bringing us along on the journey, and anytime you or your good sir are in the area the drinks are on me.

**way2fractious** · 9th February 07, 05:33 PM

Originally Posted by The F-H.C.A.G.

I knew I liked you guys for a reason! That's two drinks...Next! That reminds me of a redhead joke...maybe another time.
...
So, how about those drinks?

O.K.! We'll start with tonight when we meet up with visiting XMarker, mkmound, in Los Gatos in a couple hours. You can practice the redhead joke on us in a convivial setting.

Regarding those sewn down pleats - your picture shows a perfect example of what's called "stair-stepping." But take some credit, because the "steps" were exactly and consistently off, which means that your technique is consistent.

Now all that needs to be done is to offset one pleat against the other by exactly that distance in the opposite direction before sewing them down. Then after they are sewn, the stripes should match up exactly.

This pleat sewing technique - as it relates to hand stitching - is discussed in the book, The Art of Kiltmaking, but it is also applicable to machine sewing, especially with wool.

**pdcorlis** · 9th February 07, 05:57 PM

Thank You! Its great to see someone post their do's and their don'ts at the sewing table - Mother of the year? Oh yeah - that's a no-brainer!

**sjrapid** · 11th February 07, 02:57 PM

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

Originally Posted by The 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!

Originally Posted by The F-H.C.A.G.

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.

Originally Posted by The F-H.C.A.G.

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!)

Originally Posted by The F-H.C.A.G.

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

**katmills2005** · 11th February 07, 04:51 PM

Can't wait to see the final result.

**Tartan Hiker** · 11th February 07, 06:59 PM

Originally Posted by katmills2005

Can't wait to see the final result.

I can't wait to have an opportunity to buy the F-H. C. A. G. a drink!

**The F-H.C.A.G.** · 11th February 07, 07:17 PM

Originally Posted by The F-H.C.A.G.

...Sewing down the pleats-starting from the waist line and proceeding down-don't do it this way!
...Next time I will sew from the bottom up, more slowly, and possibly by hand-tomorrow, though, not today...

Tomorrow turned into day after tomorrow (we were out late Friday night, so I gave myself a day off).

Here-sewing up from the fell rather than down from the waistband.

A little reassurance that the fell is not too low. Look how prettily everything lines up this time (thank you w2f!)

Originally Posted by sjrapid

...
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?
...

My model is a SportKilt-so your model is likely to produce a classier kilt, but mine is easier

The apron is about equal to the pleated section. Sinbad has about a 20 inch waist (Not quite as good as Scarlett O'Hara, but almost!). There are 12 pleats.

I am going to have to put the project on hold until Thursday, 2/15, since I will be working, and I am generally too drained after work to sew.

Be well,