The backpacking kilt, or Attempt #2; How fast can Alan H make a kilt?

[Alan H]

Joan and I are doing our summer backpacking trip in the Sierra Nevada in August and I've decided that I'm gonna bang together a simple kilt for backpacking. I really enjoyed hiking in my USA Kilts Casual model, but I've sold that. I have 5 1/2 yards of woodland digicamo.

It's going to be a 3/4 width apron, wide pleat reveal, 16 pleats contemporary Reverse Kinguisse with a "normal" waistband and "normal" belt loops, that closes with velcro.

How fast can Alan make a digicamo 5 yard Rev Kinguisse hiking kilt?

This morning: wash and dry material. Does this count? 45 minutes....

to be continued.

[Spc. Scott]

I won't write much as I don't want to slow you down. So good luck Alan!

[Alan H]

I have seemingly abandoned the nightmare Hall tartan kilt in favor of this one, for now. Nothing like nearly-instant gratification.

ANY-way....this morning I serged the raw edges of the three pieces I have. What I've done is bought enough material to cut three, 26-inch strips, width-wise from the cloth, plus have a section 58 inches long x about a foot wide for belt loops, waistband, etc. I did this because as many of us know, the digital camouflage patterns don't look quite "right" if you make the kilt the normal way. So I've now got three pieces joined end to end, plus another 8 inches tacked on, which is folded under to add some weight to the right-hand edge of the over-apron. This thing is strongly stitched, if not "prettily" constructed.

3 x 58 inches = 168 inches......add in another 8 inches that I stuck on to the folded-under right hand edge of the over-apron and this thing is 176 inches of material, or 4.89 yards of cloth. Oh, heck, call it a "five yard kilt". It's pretty light, should be great for a backpacking kilt where light weight *counts*. It will see its initiation in the Sierra Nevada, in August.

Serged raw edges...3 sections of 58 inches

attached the three pieces end-to-end

folded up and ironed in the hem

stitched down the hem

added the extra piece to the right hand edge of the over-apron, pinned, folded it over, etc. etc and stitched down to finish off the right hand edge.

time spent, right about 2 hours.

TOTAL SO FAR: 2.75 hours.

BTW I think I'm out of Velcro, so a trip to JoAnne's is in order.

[Alan H]

I'm back from one week of vacation, one very cranky sewing machine, and LOTS of problems with the old singer skipping stitches which wasted masses of time. However, in about 5 more hours...

The pleat edges are all stitched down

I've folded it up four times to stare at it

One side's pleats are all stitched in, in the fell.

TOTAL so far: 7.75 hours

[Alan H]

45 minutes the other day got the other sides pleats stitched down...a two-hour marathon session before work today finished up waistband and belt loops and ironing to set pleats, etc.. All that's left is the velcro. I'm actually wearing it today, safety pinned and belted. I'm having major curling issues with the reverse pleat in the under-apron. Grrr. I might have to rip that out and re-sew it. Everything else is dandy.

2.75 hours more makes 10.5 hours TOTAL

[Alan H]

A bit of thought, a strategically placed dart on the inside, currently held in place with safety pin and set up in the Men's room and the curl is gone. The pleat lies flat. It'll be about 5 minutes, if that, of hand sewing tonight to get that done up right.

[pdcorlis]

Well done Alan - seems like you've found your groove...