Starting on my first X-kilt

[Protoncollider]

Hi, all!

Yesterday I started to do some measuring and cutting of the camouflage fabric I have chosen for my first X-kilt.

It will be a bit of an experiment... I will try to make a kilt that rides in the same position that my pants do. And as I am quite a short guy I hope it will not look too strange. The drop will be short and the fell will be very short...

Anyways... I will have fabric enough left to do one more X-kilt if this fails.

/Fredrik

[SDMF91]

I don't mean to sound like a killjoy, but DO IT BY THE BOOK FIRST. It's not an easy project as it is, and you will make mistakes, get frustrated, swear, etc. Once you do one that way, then work on tweakin it.

[vorpallemur]

I don't mean to sound like a killjoy, but DO IT BY THE BOOK FIRST. It's not an easy project as it is, and you will make mistakes, get frustrated, swear, etc. Once you do one that way, then work on tweakin it.

Depends on how much sewing experience you have. An X-kilt is a dead simple garment. If you've got the experience, making the changes he proposes is easy. If you don't, do it by the book first. Or prepare for a certain amount of frustration.

[Pleater]

If you have cut your fabric parallel to the selvage, that is most likely going to put the pattern in the wrong orientation - DPM is intended to be worn with the warp vertical. I cut the cloth for my DPM kilts across from selvage to selvage, and then join the strips.

It might not be at all obvious - with some disruptive patterns it isn't.

If you make the kilt to your waist and you really do not like it, then you can always cut some off, it is a far more difficult thing to add extra length.

A kilt worn at the waist is more likely to be in better proportion, will look smarter, create a more slender outline than one worn lower. If you are not very tall then the effect will be to accentuate rather than obscure the fact.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Tartan Tess]

Pleater, what does DPM mean?

[dfmacliam]

Disruptive/Displacement Pattern Material (DPM) is the commonly-used name of a camouflage pattern used by British forces as well many other armies worldwide, particularly in former British colonies, Jordan, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Oman, Pakistan, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Ireland, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates.

The main variant is a four-colour woodland pattern with sand, green, brown and black. There is also a two-colour desert variant in tan and brown.

this was cc&p'd from wikipedia

[Pleater]

Sorry - when still impressionable and you have burly ex military growling 'It is not camouflage!! It is DPM!!!' the usage tends to be permanent.

They tended to be sarcastic about my items of '58 pattern Army surplus - though of course it was easy to tell when they were being sarcastic - their lips were moving.

Three colour DPM is normally intended for civilian purposes, stalking and birdwatching for instance.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Protoncollider]

I was prepared for frustration and swearword popping out of my mouth...

Now that I finally have had some time to put in to my kiltmaking, I've had problems with getting my pleats in the right angle to the selvegde because the fabric is twisting...
I'm not sure how to go forward. I think the problem is that the fabric has shrunk unevenly. Any ideas?

[Smayniac]

I've seen costumers wrestling with fabric to get the grain square after prewashing. You have to lay out the fabric on your largest table, secure an end if you're working alone, and pull the other end until the grain is aligned correctly. If you can iron it as you work that may help as well.
Bob

[Protoncollider]

I found out exactly that on my own... I pulled and ironed the fabric and then the iron broke...

Hopefully I will be finished with the modified X-kilt this week. We'll see if it's approved by the mob...