A tapering nightmare.

[Erisianmonkey]

Hi all. Haven't been around much lately, but I've had a lot to do. Sewing has definitely been a part of it. I earned some cash fixing some clothes for a friend, and made myself a black bull-denim kilt. Pics of the kilt later.

I'm working on a kilted skirt for my wife using a remnant of Black Watch miniature sett that I had around from making my first kilt. The different aprons aren't a real problem, but tapering is driving me straight up the wall and around the corner. Tapering for myself or my brother-in-law is real easy. I have a 4" taper, he has a 5" taper. For my wife, however, I am dealing with 15 zarking inches of taper. I have pinned in pleats three bleedin' times already. At least I don't have to change anything below the fell, so I only have to redo tapering, but AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH HHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!

[The F-H.C.A.G.]

Wow! I'd love 15" of taper-what an hour glass! Are you going to cut out any of the excess material? Seems it would be pretty bulky in the taper.

Be well,

[RK-REX]

Wow! I'd love 15" of taper-what an hour glass!
Be well,

Ya know, I was just thinking the same thing...

[Erisianmonkey]

No, I won't be cutting out any of the excess. To be able to make the skirt, I'm having to make really shallow pleats- as in 1.25 in. deep. Like I said, it's what's left over from converting my great kilt into a modern kilt.

[Pleater]

The usual solution for child bearing hips is to create a normal skirt top from the waist down to somewhere around just below the navel, plus a bit more to attach the pleats. It needs to be long enough to take in most of the expansion, if not all of it, using darts, so the pleats are going to hang almost vertically. As women vary a lot in their shape the actual length required will need to be found by experimenting with a piece of tape tied in a loop to represent the seam line. It will not be the same length all around - you need to get the seam horisontal on a multiplicity of different slopes.

If you have a yen for neatness you can put in a liner or if the cloth is thin enough make it double like a shirt yoke to enclose the top of the pleats.

However - your present problem is compounded as women taper at different rates on different parts of their circumference, this is a good excuse for studying that area should you ever need one.

I can only suggest that you use a lot of safety pins and experiment, try on and adjust until you can get the material to conform to the body shape.

[Robinhood]

I'd suggest pinning the pleats at the fell (but not at the waist),
and having her "wear" it held in place at the hips while you
mark or pin the waist. If the fabric is sturdy enough, you
can use masking tape or scotch tape around the waistline
to make quick work of it and pin it without her wearing it.

Once you get it pinned, have her wear it without the
belt around the hips to make sure it is correct, and
adjust if necessary.

[Barb T.]

A trad kilt can, in fact, be made with that much taper and no darts - in fact, if you're making a trad kilt, you should never put darts in. A kilt skirt can have darts, but they do show dramatically. I personally don't like the look of darts even in a kilt skirt, because they distort the tartan so much. And since they aren't necessary, why put them in?

I've made kilts (without darts) for women with even more taper than you're describing (17" to be exact). The trick is to divide it between the apron and pleats, not putting more than 5-6" of the taper in the apron. That leaves 9-10" of taper in the pleats. I don't know how many pleats you'll have with the amount of tartan you've got, so I can't advise you much more than that. But, just pin the pleat at the right width at the hips (bottom of the fell), and again at the right width at the waist. Pin liberally in between to hold the taper, and make sure that you _don't_ continue the taper about the waist pin if you have a rise. Because you're working with wool, you can stretch and press the wool nice and flat when you're done, even though you have many folds that aren't parallel to the straight grain.

BTW folks - the fell is the entire stitched portion of the pleats, not just the bottom of the stitched portion.

Barb

[Erisianmonkey]

Thanks Barb, et. al. I got the skirt done. I put 4" of taper into the aprons, and the rest I spread across the pleats. I will get pics up eventually, but I think I got it to come out pretty nice.

[Doomsday]

Lookin' forward to it.