How to prepare DW material

[Alan H]

Personally, I cut out the two halves and join the halves before stitching the pleats. That way I can do a fold-up dry run of the entire pleating scheme on the table and check for goofs. However you decide to join the halves, and I do it by machine, it will be buried in a pleat and won't be seen.

[Barb T]

If you're making a trad kilt by hand, you should stitch all the pleats _before_ stitching the join. Unless you have a lot of experience sewing kilts, you can't predict where the join will fall in the pleat until the tartan is pleated. And, unlike in the pleated skirt described by Heming above, you _don't_ want the join to fall on the fold, because the flat felled seam that you'll use for the join doesn't fold well. You _do_ want it on the flat part of the inside back of the pleat. It's just easier to wait until you can see exactly where it will fall.

And there's really no reason to sew the pieces together ahead of time. If you're following the directions in the book, you'll be folding and stitching only one pleat at a time anyway. Once you've sewn the last pleat on the first half, you just pick up the second half, fold the next pleat, and continue on as if there were not two pieces.

[Heming]

And, unlike in the pleated skirt described by Heming above, you _don't_ want the join to fall on the fold, because the flat felled seam that you'll use for the join doesn't fold well. You _do_ want it on the flat part of the inside back of the pleat.

I'm sure the above is absolutely correct, but I need to have explained to me what a "flat felled seam" looks like (as I will have this exact challenge next month when I start pleating my next kilt). What I do for pleated skirts is a straight seam through two layers right side to right, so that the joining seam is right where the fold would have been, i.e. nothing to fold in that (back) pleat. Since a kilt and a pleated skirt are two different matters, I want to try Barb T.'s method, only I don't know what the seam should look like. I want it to look good, and I'll do it by hand if I have to, but need a teacher.

Also I'm worried how the join will show up at the bottom of the kilt, as my particular tartan needs to be hemmed. Help me...

Heming

[attworth]

I'm sure the above is absolutely correct, but I need to have explained to me what a "flat felled seam" looks like (as I will have this exact challenge next month when I start pleating my next kilt). What I do for pleated skirts is a straight seam through two layers right side to right, so that the joining seam is right where the fold would have been, i.e. nothing to fold in that (back) pleat. Since a kilt and a pleated skirt are two different matters, I want to try Barb T.'s method, only I don't know what the seam should look like. I want it to look good, and I'll do it by hand if I have to, but need a teacher.

Also I'm worried how the join will show up at the bottom of the kilt, as my particular tartan needs to be hemmed. Help me...

Heming

I believe what you are describing is correct. What Barb was saying was not to put the join seam right at a fold. This will create a potentially un-sightful bulge. Rather, hide it in the pleat. If you have a 3/4" pleat, with say, 5" of fabric until the next pleat, hide it somewhere in there, but try not to do it at a fold.

I'm experiencing this right now with a solid color kilt. I did the seam right on a fold, and ended up having to move the pleat over exactly 1/2" (the width of the turned over join.) There was just too much material there to have it look right. Now, the edge of the turned over join is at the start of the inner fold.

I hope that makes some sense.