Am I "lucky" or what?!

[Mipi]

After I was really lucky to won a women's kilt (to rework it in men's) very cheap on 14. of Dec., I found out that Royal Mail stopped international shippments on 10. of Dec.!?

Now I have to wait till after Christmas. So, I'm home and can't work on it!

[cessna152towser]

I think the last day for guaranteed delivery of international shipments before Christmas was 10th December, so you may yet get lucky and receive it on time.

[Mipi]

It's 6th orf January and still nothing...

[Highland Logan]

After I was really lucky to won a women's kilt (to rework it in men's) very cheap on 14. of Dec., I found out that Royal Mail stopped international shippments on 10. of Dec.!?

Now I have to wait till after Christmas. So, I'm home and can't work on it!

Do you mean a womans kilted skirt?

Frank

[Mipi]

I got idea from Arlen. What I got on Ebay (and hope to get it home) is a Women kilt (opens on the left) and is longer (30"). In best case I'll have to redo apron/underapron and shorten it to 24". If that will not be possible it still good by of tartan for small money (7.16 EUR with shipping). It's 100% wool tartan (similar to Gunn) and kilt is made by Highland industries.

[Mipi]

It seems I'm not so lucky after all. The item did com yesterday but... I call it item for a reason; seller description was "women kilt", but it's "women skirt made of wool tartan"

What that means? It's very light tartan, and more important the pleats are very shallow. Pleated to nothing! Total length of fabric (at hem line) is 2.5 m only. Otherwise in a really very good condition, made by Highland Home Industries of 100% Pure New Wool (size 20). I'm not really disappointed while it was cheap and looks great. Tartan is similar to Gunn (but has yellow stripe instead of green).

So now, what are the options?

1. My wife could wear it, if I move the straps to make it a bit smaller (1 or 2"), if she decides to have it?!
2. Sell it, which I don't like to do, really
3. Take it apart and redo it into light summer kilt anyway.

If option 3 will take place, I would leave the ham (why to ham it again, right), but rather take it apart in waistband and pleats; they are not good anyway. Cut it back to 24" length. 6" band that I would get this way, I could cut into 5 peaces and re-saw them carefully into new underapron (matching sett as much as possible). This way I would end up with approx. 3m of tartan, which could be enough for box pleated kilt. Must do some calculations and test first.

Any other ideas?

Regards!

[Highland Logan]

It seems I'm not so lucky after all. The item did com yesterday but... I call it item for a reason; seller description was "women kilt", but it's "women skirt made of wool tartan"

What that means? It's very light tartan, and more important the pleats are very shallow. Pleated to nothing! Total length of fabric (at hem line) is 2.5 m only. Otherwise in a really very good condition, made by Highland Home Industries of 100% Pure New Wool (size 20). I'm not really disappointed while it was cheap and looks great. Tartan is similar to Gunn (but has yellow stripe instead of green).

So now, what are the options?

1. My wife could wear it, if I move the straps to make it a bit smaller (1 or 2"), if she decides to have it?!
2. Sell it, which I don't like to do, really
3. Take it apart and redo it into light summer kilt anyway.

If option 3 will take place, I would leave the ham (why to ham it again, right), but rather take it apart in waistband and pleats; they are not good anyway. Cut it back to 24" length. 6" band that I would get this way, I could cut into 5 peaces and re-saw them carefully into new underapron (matching sett as much as possible). This way I would end up with approx. 3m of tartan, which could be enough for box pleated kilt. Must do some calculations and test first.

Any other ideas?

Regards!

Like I thought... it's a skirt... move on.

Frank

[Pleater]

This is one reason why I want to wear 'real' kilts with lots of quality material in them.

I have a couple of similar pleated skirts - or I did until they were attacked by infant arthropods and eaten into holes. Now they are just spare cloth for recycling.

They are probably regarded as quality clothing by those selling them originally, and maybe those buying them originally, because the general quality of women's clothing is quite low.

You might find that the top part of the material will not quite match the rest when turned through 90 degrees, as the set is not precisely a square on many tartans.

I'd recommend that you line the apron, and perhaps the under apron too - the first to lend a bit of substance and give a better appearance, the latter to cover all the seams.

Anne the Pleater

[Mipi]

Hm... I'm not sure what you meant by "turned through 90 degrees", Anne? I know that tartan doesn't (usually) match in weft and warp direction. It’s rectangular rather then square.

But I like your idea to line the apron/underapron. In fact, material is so light it would be beneficial to line the whole thing prior pleating process.

First, Ill measure the sett and give a try if I could make something with not really much tartan to work on. Oh yes, wife is first in the line to pick.

Thanks Anne!

[Arlen]

I'm sorry it wasn't a good quality one! Hopefully you'll get lucky with something soon.
In the meantime, I am sure it would make a great summer Kilt.
(Anne's suggestion would work so long as you didn't mind the warp and weft difference between the two halves of the Kilt.)