to buy a crappy ebay kilt for project?

[JamieKerr]

I still have a few more weeks until my Kerr kilt arrives from Matt Newsome. This is my very last semester of graduate school. It's going by slow enough, and then I purchased a kilt to make it go even slower?? Poor planning! Anyway.

While I wait for my kilt to arrive, I've been wanting to make a box pleat kilt. I've been thinking of finding a beautiful fabric from Joanne Fabric to make into a kilt. Well I happen to like perusing ebay when bored, as sometimes you can find some nifty stuff cheap. Today I stumbled across some crappy looking kilts made in the Kerr tartan, something I never find on there.
http://cgi.ebay.com/KERR-KILT-30-New...QQcmdZViewItem

I've little doubt its a piece of crap given its price, and it just doesn't look right. But I was thinking that perhaps it would be possible to unstitch the kilt, and remake it as a box pleat kilt? I was also contemplating making a box pleat kilt in khaki, with tartan inside the pleats. Opinions?

[Arizona Scot]

Sounds interesting and you are way more adventuruos than me. Good luck and post pictures if you do decide to try this.

[Erisianmonkey]

It depends on whether the pleats were cut out at the top. If they weren't, then it would depend on the quality of fabric, and your level of patience with a seam ripper to get out the old stitching without gouging holes in the tartan. If the fabric is low quality, you may have more frustration than the project is worth to you in the end. Most importantly, have you ever made a kilt before? If not, I would suggest go ahead and do the khaki rather than buying yourself a chunk of frustration. (Believe me, I know whereof I speak, I just retailored a SWK Thrifty into a box pleat.)

[James MacMillan]

Go for it. At the very least you will learn something. -and isn't that why you are in school

[ChattanCat]

Ask for a picture of the pleats! You want to know how many pleats, and if they are sewn or not.

[JamieKerr]

Good points by all, thank you. And, no, this is not the first kilt I've made. It's just the first box pleat I've made.

[Alan H]

I ripped apart two kilt skirts for the tartan (Grey Stewart) and managed to do it all while only ripping one very small tear in the fabric itself, and I think I can hide it.

However, it took a long time, and these were wool. I still have to flatten the old pleats out, and that's gonna take a while, too. If you have lots of time, it might work.

[Ian.MacAllan]

There is much good advice in the previous posts; all I can add to them is emphasis.

I've never made a kilt but I have made many other things and those experiences have rather uniformly taught me that using low quality material is buying frustration and disappointing results. The most valuable resource you will put into a project is your own time, effort, and talent. Don't sell yourself short. You want to make something that you will want to keep and wear in public.

.

[Jerry]

There should be some copies of Alan's XKILT instructions around. Buy some fabric and make one of those.

[Pleater]

I'd say that the easiest way to get the fabric to make a kilt is to buy it as fabric - that way you are buying something you should be able to work with straight away rather than having to undo what has already been down to it - and if the cheap kilt I bought is anything to go buy, the quality of the fabric and workmanship would reduce a true craftsman almost to tears.

I have made myself quite a few kilts now - enough to have lost count, but as time has gone by I have upped the length of fabric, its weight and its quality - I have now graduated to 8 yards heavyweight real tartan all wool.

It is a bit like - no - it is a lot like an addiction, and the stuff used for cheap kilts is just not good enough.