Gonna' make a kilt-PLEASE HELP

[Downix]

I made two kids kilts before I made a full sized one. My son loves them.

[Alan H]

I'm not sure why people tend to think that the 8 yard kilt is the last thing to make. In my opinion, making an machine-made x-kilt will not really help you in the long run to make a hand-sewn garment. It's almost two different skill sets. You can be a terrible machine sewist and still be able to sew quite well by hand AND vise versa. (I can machine sew and hand sew very well, but am a crappy knitter....) Anyway, there's absolutely no need to build up to an 8 yard kilt by making an x-kilt then a solid-colour, etc. If you really want to make an 8 yard, then by all means do so.

This is what I would recommend:

-practice your hand-stitching first; look up all the hand-stitches that are used in the AoK and spend some time with each of them; get used to holding a needle, wearing a thimble and holding the fabric as you sew.

-forget about the cheap fabric and use some real wool tartan fabric. If you find that your results are less than stellar and you never want to finish the kilt, I'm sure someone here will take the fabric off your hands - as long as you haven't cut the fell, you should be fine. There's no real substitute on how wool really sews up. Even BarbT recommends this.

-use an uncomplicated tartan such as an Erskine, or Cunningham; pleating and tapering become far less of a headache when you use these tartans.

-take your time, don't be afraid to 'unsew', even the most experienced sewists have to do this.

-keep in touch with your xmarks family for words of encouragement

While I have a different perspective from Dixiecat, one thing we absolutely agree on...I put it in bold. Understand from the git-go that you ARE going to rip out stitches and do them again. EVERYBODY does this.

BTW, I have no objection to using wool for your first tartan kilt. I did that. It's just that I found an inexpensive purchase of a good amount of wool tartan (saxony, not worsted) for not very much money on ebay, rather than dropping $70 yard on full-price worsted Scottish tartan. It didn't have a kilting selvedge so I had to hand-blind-stitch hem it, but no big deal. I think the point is not that it's BAD to use wool for your first handsewn kilt, just that it's sad to pay a lot of money on material for a kilt, and then not do as good a job as you will do when you have some experience. I've sewn up a lot of kilts, both hand and machine and the truth is that the first pleat I hand-stitch in a kilt is never quite as good as the last one, when I've had 24-32 pleats before it in the last few days for practice.

[fluter]

I'm not sure why people tend to think that the 8 yard kilt is the last thing to make. In my opinion, making an machine-made x-kilt will not really help you in the long run to make a hand-sewn garment. It's almost two different skill sets.

True! If you WANT an X-kilt, and have a machine, it's a fine beginning and instructive. I think that learning about the construction details is the reason it's often suggested.

Oh and I meant to mention: You can un-do literally EVERYTHING, until the pleats are cut out! As DC says, you can "un-sew" until you get it right. At my apprentice skill level, if I don't re-do some pleats then I'm not working at my best level.

-keep in touch with your xmarks family for words of encouragement

... and post pictures.

[Dixiecat]

I think that learning about the construction details is the reason it's often suggested.

I might agree with this statement except for one thing: The Art of Kiltmaking. This book contains within it's covers, a complete knowledge guide to making an 8 yard. You don't need to know anything about the x-marks construction details in order to hand sew a kilt. In fact, you could use this book as the precursor to making an x-marks kilt. It's all in how you look at it.

I've taught sewing both by machine and by hand and have myself done both for many years. I don't have any preconceived notion as to which method is 'best'. I think that my long experience allows me to look at both of them objectively and say that there is no need to build up to hand sewing a kilt by machine sewing one first. Just like there is no need to learn knitting to build up to crocheting.

I think that some of the feeling that one needs to build up to hand sewing is the mindset these days that machines are better or that one experience you had in hemming a pair of pants or sewing a button on still weighs in your mind as an excruciatingly hard time.

Your first hand sewn 8 yard kilt won't look any better than your first machine made x-marks kilt if you're new to either type of sewing, but there's no need to do one over the other to build up to it.