at it, yet again

[Alan H]

So about a year and a half ago I bought 2 1/2 yards 'roughly" of a light wool "tartan" that I saw on ebay because I really liked the colors. When I got it home I made a sort-of "feilidh-beig" out of it by cutting it in half, joining the halves, folding over the top, raw edge and hamming it, and hemming the ends. I sort of pleated it to stripe, very lightly steamed the pleats and sewed them in with 6-8 stitches that would be hidden under the belt.

It was fine, though the waistband was silly-too-bulky. Anyway, about a month after that I bought 4 yards of the stuff that I now use for my 'feilidh-mhor" and this sort of kilt has been sitting in the closet.

I finally pulled it out yesterday and decided that even though it wasn't really a tartan because the pattern going vertical is not exactly the same as the pattern going horizontal, I still liked it. It's not THAT different. A kilt nut might notice, though two certified X-Marks kilt nuts have not....and 99% of the rest of the world will be clueless. It's not a twill, it's a straight weave, but I still like it. I strapped it on yesterday and remembered how nice it was.

Oh, hang it all.

So I just cut out the folded over faux waistband. I will hand-sew the 15 pleats, put in some waistband reinforcing and a quick and dirty liner. Maybe I'll splurge and put in a small reverse pleat in the under-apron. I'll put some interfacing under the over apron and make a couple of straps and use up two extra buckles that I have lying around. If I invest 8 hours in this that will be about right. It will be nice little lightweight wool kilt.

Pics to come when it's done.

[Cowher]

Looking forwards to the pics.

[Alan H]

Pleats all done. I zoomed through them all yesterday afternoon to yesterday night. Then I tore out three this morning to change the fit! HA!

[Detroitpete]

Alan,

yer just teasing us now!

[Alan H]

Pleats all done, hand-sewn (15 of them) and ironed in. Next up....
liner and waistband.

[Alan H]

Put in a heavy canvas waistband reinforcing strip, which in retrospect was a bit more than I needed but that's OK. Liner is in, under-apron "should be hair canvas but I used interfacing" stiffening is in. Right side buckle and strap are on. Waistband is all done except hand sewing the inside.

Then the leather strap on the over-apron and a button for the under-apron and it's picture time.

[Eleazar]

Can't wait to see this with some construction pics.

[Alan H]

I had a piece of caramel-colored canvas left over from my very first kiltmaking project. It was big enough for a few things, but not bigger than that, like to make a few MORE things.... if that makes sense.

Now, when I made my California Tartan box-pleat, I figured out a way to stitch the box-pleats together by machine such that the join would be quite strong. After looking it over I decided that I didn't need the fell reinforcing strip that we often put into hand-sewn knife-pleat kilts when you cut out the strips inside the kilt, in the fell. However, I wanted something to take the load of cinching up the buckle, right below the waistband.

my solution was to take a 2-inch wide strip of this canvas, hem the edge and stitch it in there right at the waistband. The straps/buckles are all stitched through the tartan and into this continuous piece of canvas. So when I cinch down the belt, the canvas takes the load, rather than the stitching between the pleats.

SO....now I come to this kilt. I'm thinking I'll do the same thing, eh? Except that I doubled over the canvas strip so that it's double-thickness! ....well, it's a bit much, rather thick, but it'll be fine. The thing is, because these are hand-sewn knife pleats, I probably should use something to reinforce the fell, but because I doubled over the waistband canvas, now I don't have that to use. Ah,well...there's some interfacing left over. That worked fine in my Gray Stewart kilt. If I have enough energy, I'll just use that.........or not. This IS supposed to be a lightweight job.

I'm going back to hair canvas for the Ancient MacNaughton. Need to order some, soon.

[Arlen]

I'm very interested in this one, Alan. Verrrry interested.

[Alan H]

All done. The leather is brown, and the inside closure is actually a leather strap with a buttonhole in it. Works great. I've been sitting on the pleats all day, so they're a mess. There are 17 of them.