Some Assembly Allowed....SWK

**mddock58** · 26th July 07, 10:32 AM

They were not designed to be sewn down. In order to do that, you would need to order the kilt at the size of your hips, and then remove the waistband and literally remake it. (taper the fell, and stitch it down)

Is that what you really want to do?

**Perldog007** · 27th July 07, 05:52 AM

Originally Posted by mddock58

They were not designed to be sewn down. In order to do that, you would need to order the kilt at the size of your hips, and then remove the waistband and literally remake it. (taper the fell, and stitch it down)

Is that what you really want to do?

No I would prolly snag one of those remnants from F&K and make one from scratch first.

I saw a post by fluter saying he stitched the one in his avatar. At first guess I would imagine a short "fell" and perhaps some other wizardry. It was an interesting exercise though. But since the lightbulb is already invented I think I will try to skip the Edison routine (10,000+ failures)

I may try taking out the stitches half way up, and seeing how they fit. If good will just lock them down there, if not, all the way out they come.

**adam** · 27th July 07, 08:16 PM

Originally Posted by Perldog007

But since the lightbulb is already invented I think I will try to skip the Edison routine (10,000+ failures)

But they weren't failures...

**fluter** · 29th July 07, 03:58 PM

Originally Posted by mddock58

They were not designed to be sewn down. In order to do that, you would need to order the kilt at the size of your hips, and then remove the waistband and literally remake it.

We tried to make it a little simpler than that.

My SWK economy appeared to be tailored in more or less "tubular" fashion at the waist size. The pleats then open to accommodate the hips. My self-image is pretty secure, else I would not be here. However I will grudgingly admit that iit looks a tiny bit skirt-like.

My Wallace tartan, on a 6-inch sett, was very nicely pleated to stripe with a reveal of about 1-1/8 or 1-1/4 inch. My goal was to taper this out by about half an inch per pleat, where possible; as I needed 6 or 7 inches of taper. I hoped that the fell would then sit nice and flat; and that, being fitted to my hips, the kilt would better "stay put" at the high-rise waist line.

Here's the result:

The original seams are at the waistband, and mid-belt near the first horizontal yellow stripe.

My new fell comes down to the second horizontal yellow line, just below the hip buckle. I was able to taper out sufficiently while keeping the reveal in the dark black area. The main limitation is the anchor of the hip buckle, which restricts a couple of pleats to the original reveal. The bottom of the belt loops affect the results to a lesser extent.

Before (left) and after:

I'm not sure how much you can tell from the photos. In both cases, alas! the kilt had been a bit sat-on. While my hand tailoring is not perfect, it feels better and I believe it looks a bit better. Conventional wisdom says that more taper is needed around the side of the hips than across the back. It might have looked better if I had been able to keep the center more straight, but the buckle gets in the way on the right side.

In sum, it's not easy to get the hip-room I require within the limitations. I may need to touch up a couple of areas to make the taper more gradual. And the SWK Economy is a bargain, with or without modification.

I also have an SWK Thrifty Kilt. Like our colleague, I now have one of each model. My Irish National Thrifty model, though, is so nicely pleated to the sett ...

that I almost hate to mess with it! However without the belt loops and buckles, one may be able to do it more gracefully, perhaps working some taper into the broad green background area. Then I my try making belt loops out of some flashes, hmmm...

Later I'll show you a mod to an un-sewn-down Sport Kilt, a less successful venture.

**Perldog007** · 30th July 07, 08:22 AM

Excellent pics and explanation Ken! My two mistakes were not adding a taper and stitching down too far.

The economy wears so well in warm weather that I really wanted to modify one or two. I shall regroup armed with this new knowledge and succeed on the next run.

After we finish and post up Mactrailer Park hunting kilt ver 4.0 alpha. My neighbor wanted a kilt as soon as he saw my U.K., but he is watching the pennies with a wife enduring expensive and serious medical treatments.

What could a decent kiltsman do except make this man a kilt? Pics soon....

Seriously appreciate the explanation, I think my economy Wallace should recover nicely!