Jonesing & needing some advice

[John M.]

I finaly ordered a kilt from Kilt store for my son.

What I need to know is, how dificult is it to hem it up if it's necisary? Or am I worried about nothing?

His measurements were 19" waist & 11"-12" from navel to top of knee.
The closest size listed was for 4+ years old (cool he turns 4 for in June) and lists the size as 19"-20" waist & 14" length so it may be 2 or 3 inches to long.

Oh & we picked the MacPherson tartan.

[mbhandy]

Nice Tartan John,

Hemming a Cilt for a child you could do by hand or if you have a machine from the look of the tartan you could use a black thread.

MrBill

[GMan]

Can't help you with the hemming question. Yet that is a nice lokking tartan, your son will look mighty fine.

[Big Dave]

Don't worry about hemming it's not that bad. I'm very much looking forward to buying my son his first cilt when he's a little older (he's only 14 months).

[LoftGuy]

Hi,

Great tartan; in my experience, I'd not shorten the hem too permanently as a 4 year old will grow so fast you'll soon have to lenghten it.

BTW, great starting him out with a kilt at 4 years of age.

Bob

[Barb T]

I agree that it's easy to hem, and he'll look better if it's the right length (even if you have to let it down in a couple of months!). At Highland games, I see too many little boys in kilts that are a few inches too long, and they do look like they're wearing skirts....

Cheers!

Barb

[John M.]

Yeah I just don't want it coming off looking like a skirt.

I thought I could just tack it with a stitch every inch or so across the apron & in the fold of each pleat then press it with the iron to make the edges crisp again. Then I could let it down and repress as needed after that.

Just thought I'd run it by those who have been there, done that.

Thanks folks.

[auld argonian]

All of the intelligence that I've gathered about hemming a kilt with a set length is that there's this wonderful thing called a "blind hem stitch" that you can use. It can be done by hand or you can rig up a zig-zag type sewing machine to do it and put a little "helper" on the foot of the machine that holds the fabric folded over just right so that the machine can do the stitch. I found lots of reference on the internet about the blind hem stitch...it's pretty clever...check it out. Or just find a tailor or seamstress (or possibly a very obliging dry cleaners with an alterations department) and farm the work out to them.

It should look pretty cute...I've got the opposite problem: a teenage son who's 6'3" and has a 29 inch waist...even a 24" drop would probably be too short! He disappears real quick whenever I suggest that we get him a kilt before the next highland games, though....do you think that I should take that as a "no"?

Best

AA

[Pleater]

As the kilt will need to be lengthened perhaps two or three times, I would not press the edge.

Try turning the hem up by hand - select a fine horisontal stripe at the right height and a matching thread. Now make three stitches in the edge, one which is like this ( - )and two to make an X over the top of it. You don't need to put a knot in the end. Now put a small stitch into the stripe and then put the needle through the edge once, small stitch in the stripe and then go through the edge. Don't pull too tight. You can easily avoid putting stitches in the lighter coloured vertical stripes, and it makes a neat job.

Now look at the new lower edge. It needs to look neat, but if you press it into a sharp crease it might show when let down, so pick a colour that matches or is just a little darker (lighter threads show far more than dark) and sew along the inside of the hem, fairly close to the lower edge so it is held in a tight fold. You can fold the pleats and 'oversew' the two edges maybe 1/8th of an inch from the fold, sew through a nice lot of threads for the stitches to hold and there won't be pulling - or at least not as much as sewing through a few threads on the edge.

If you sew from the back and have the needle more or less flat to the fabric you can make a stitch which is fairly easy to see from the back, but which just surfaces on the outside of the kilt. You can do two or three stitches at a time if you have a fairly long needle - I tell people 'think of the Lock Ness Monster and you'll get the idea'.

Unpicking is fairly easy as you can use a seam ripper to cut through the stitches holding the pleats and then ease the threads out from the back using the eye end of a strong needle. If there are marks left, pat them with a damp sponge or cloth and work the cloth gently - hold it left and right of a small area and twist it gently on the diagonals first one way then the other so the threads move over eachother and hopefully move back into place.

You might need to press the pleats. Do that before putting in another hem - you want to keep the kilt so it will look right when returned to un hemmed condition, so always press in what you want to keep, not the temporary hem.

[John M.]

Pleater, thanks for such a thorough description. I'll have to print this topic out for reference when the kilt finally arrives.

Auld Argonian. Your son must be assimilated. His resistance is futile. He will become one with the kilt. It may even call for an Xmarks intervention!
Just imagine the look on his face as he wakes-up one morning to find himself surrounded by the kilted hoard, ya know kinda like a scene from one of those Capital One credit card commercials.