contemporary box pleat kilt: an ongoing thread

**Southern Breeze** · 11th July 06, 06:09 PM

Great thread thus far.

A quick question - is the bulk of the sewing being done by machine?

**Alan H** · 11th July 06, 06:33 PM

Originally Posted by Southern Breeze

Great thread thus far.

A quick question - is the bulk of the sewing being done by machine?

Yes, essentially ALL of it will be done by machine. There might be a few bits and pieces that will have to be done by hand, but I'm trying to minimize that.

I've been on vacation for 5 days, so I'll be back to work on the first-run of the "X-Kilt" tomorrow morning.

**Southern Breeze** · 11th July 06, 06:47 PM

Originally Posted by Alan H

Yes, essentially ALL of it will be done by machine. There might be a few bits and pieces that will have to be done by hand, but I'm trying to minimize that.

I've been on vacation for 5 days, so I'll be back to work on the first-run of the "X-Kilt" tomorrow morning.

Thanks. I was 99% sure that was how you were doing it. That 1% reminded me not to make any assumptions.

**Alan H** · 15th July 06, 01:35 PM

OK did some more work yesterday. Here's what I did.

Sewed half of the velcro onto the inner side of the over-apron on both kilts.

Finished (two lines of stitching) the right hand edge of the over-apron on both kilts. Actually one of them got three lines of stitching.

Hemmed both kilts..

Total time....about 3 hours.

So now I'm into it a total of about 7.75 hours.

I also put in about two hours writing up instructions on how to make this kilt for the Compleat Idjit. I'm about a third of the way into the writing of the manual. I now have a digital camera with which to take pics, (thanks KCW!) so I'll illustrate the manual with pictures.

**Alan H** · 17th July 06, 02:30 PM

OK, I did a MESS of work on this today, about four hours. However, at least two hours of that was refining the design, making some changes to the instructions, and drawing up a "pleating/stitching diagram".

ANY-way.... two hours actual kilt construction time is about right. So today I just worked on one kilt. I re-stitched the right hand edge of the over apron, as it didn't come out so well the first time. No biggie.

I then laid the kilt out and chalked in the fell lines and where to sew the first four pleats. I di dit twice, actually because I chalked in the lines on the INSIDE of the kilt and then realised that I wouldn't be able to see them when I had the kilt on the table, sewing, so I did 'em over again. I figure that someone following my instructions will probably make a couple of goofs like that, so I'm gonna leave in the time and assume it'll come up with a better estimate for a reg'lar person.

I then slapped it on the machine and stitched in five box pleats. OK so half the pleats are stitched in from fell to hem and the over-apron is essentially done.

9.75 hours. total!

**Alan H** · 18th July 06, 11:16 AM

OIK, I"ve been beavering away, here.

This morning I did the following:

Chalked in pleats 6 - 11

stitched in pleats 6 - 11

Carefully evened up all the box pleats on the ironing board, and ironed that puppy flat

Back to the sewing table, and re-assemble my accordion (HA! ) kilt with great care, flat on the table....Hand stitch (just 2-3 stitches for each pleat) the pleat edges together right at the bottom of the fell in preparation for machine-sewing 'em. I think this might not benecessary, actually, if you thoroughly pin each pleat edge both below and within the fell (see below).

Pinned the now-attached-to-eac-other pleats to the folded-under INSIDE of the pleats so everything now lays flat and is attached to everything else. Finally, I tacked 'em down with the sewing machine.

I just worked on one kilt today, officially X-Kilt protytpe #1 for Dan the Brew Man...three hours.

I'm now 12.75 hours into it.

I don't think I'm gonng get 'em both done in 18 hours, looks more like 24.

**Alan H** · 22nd July 06, 10:56 PM

OK about three more hours today and X-Kilt prototype number 1 is done.

Today I...

Pinned in the taper in the pleats along the fell. I only tapered four pleats, as this guys doesn't have much differential between his butt measuremen and his waist measurement.

sewed down the pleats above the fell.

decided that this kilt wasn't going to need a waistband, so I ran a line of stitching around the very top of the kilt about 1/4 from the upper edge to hold down all the pleats.

sewed the "other half" of the velcro on the under-apron

cut off the left edge of the under-apron and hemmed it

made, and put on 5 belt loops for a 2.5 inch wide belt.

put in a button fastener to hold the right hand edge of the over apron close to the first pleat edge.

OK so now I'm 15.75 hours into making the two first prototypes of the X Kilt. Of that, about two thirds went into making prototype I, or roughly ten hours to make this kilt.

Can you find ten hours of time, a button, four yards of inexpensive material, a spool of theread, a foot of velcro, and a sewing machine that can sew straight stitch, zig-sag, and do a button hole? You don't even HAVE to do the button hole, you could set a couple of snaps instead, ya know?

If you answer yes to the above, then you can make this kilt...ten hours, gang...OK maybe 12-13 if it's your first kilt. It won't be as nice as a Utilikilt or a Freedom Kilt or an Amerikilt, but this one is looking pretty good, all things considered. I'm working on the instructions for ya!.

**Alan H** · 22nd July 06, 10:57 PM

BTW, no pics....I didn't build this one for me, I built it for Dan the Brewer. i'll have pics (If I can figure out this digital camera) after the next SF Bay Beer and Kilts night.

**Panache** · 23rd July 06, 08:25 AM

Alan,

You are one industrious fellow! You have to make Dan and Jason promise to wear their kilts for the August beer night. Walkerk and I won't be able to make this Friday and really want to see your finished work!

Cheers