sewing down and re-pleating a sportkilt for a kiltless friend...

[Joshua]

I have an original sportkilt that is looking rather "skirtlike" these days, for a few reasons.

I was planning on sewing down the back pleats about 3.5" (the waistline) to get rid of the "puffy" look around the waist and rump. I'm also cutting about 4" of fabric off because it wraps around either one of us about 6" over what it should... that fabric, most likely, will be reinforced with canvas and sewn back on as belt loops and flashes (elastic stolen from frangelico bottle ropes).

Anyone else try to "dress up" an old sportkilt? FYI this is a first gen, poly-wool sportkilt with velcro/elastic.. no fringe/loops, this thing was made several years before they offered such options.

[Santa Wally]

If Rocky is still offering his "clunker kilt" trade-in. That would be much easier and you'd have a made-to-measure, much better quality PV kilt.

I traded in my 1st kilt (a Sport Kilt) and bought 2 more USA Kilts from Rocky. My 2nd kilt was a made-to-measure casual USA Kilt which fit like a glove. So I considered my Sport Kilt a "clunker" and replaced it with a USA Kilt in the same tartan.

I my opinion, you'll be MUCH happier with a new USA Kilt rather than putting a lot of effort and work into modifying an old Sport Kilt.

Even if Rocky no longer has the clunker kilt trade-in offer, you'd be much better off with a new USA made-to-measure Casual kilt. My two cents worth.

[Pleater]

If faced with the same task I would remove the waistband and get rid of at least some of the excess fabric by tapering the pleats into the small of the back.

I think that the kilt you have has no tapering, so hip and waist measurements are the same?

The puffy look, I suspect, is due to the pleats trying to accomodate the body shape.

Keep the lower part unaltered, tack down the pleats temporarily for ease of handling, shape the fell to get a better fit, replace the waistband, press well and remove the tacking stitches.

Anne the Pleater :ootd: