Repairing my own mistake: Bad knife pleat - (2)Box pleat

[sirdaniel1975]

Where to start, ah.. well there was a time not to terribly long ago that I had very little clue in the DIY kilt making department. Let's just say there were a couple of mess ups, fortunately in both cases the fabric was inexpensive. The second one however, the material was a decent cloth and seemed to be salvageable. I had told myself for over a year I'd give it a repair. It was a poorly constructed knife pleat of about 7.75 yards. So I got to work:


Notice the not so goodness.


Here's a close up.


Beginning to remove the waistband. It was really bad, lots of bunching in places.


Waistband removed.


Removing the inner construction..

[sirdaniel1975]

Starting to remove the pleats


Halfway done

[sirdaniel1975]

Now, I had enough material to make roughly two box pleats left... The other half went to "Celtic Cowboy" (Aaron Smith). He actually finished his long ago and I have not finished mine yet. But here's a little peek into the process.


Tools used and the beginnings of setting the apron.


Marking the measurements and locations where the edges will be and such.


Right hip edge set.


Apron set.

[sirdaniel1975]

All the pins have been removed from the apron, being it is basted at this time. Now I begin working on the pleats. As one can see, I'm pleating it to the yellow stripe.







Look folks, most of you can do this as well. It just takes patience.

[Alan H]

Great stuff. This will look nice.

Just a thought, go easy on the chalk. Those are some pretty significant marks you've put in, there. I'm not sure they'll completely come out.

[sirdaniel1975]

They look brighter in the photo than they actually are. Plus they're nearly gone now.

[Aldisimo]

I always enjoy looking at in-progress photos. Thanks, and good luck!

[ChattanCat]

Hey, nice job. If the chalk is dust off, no problem as eventually they will dust off. The basting is an interesting method to set the pleats before stitching. Are you planning on machine stitching or hand?

[sirdaniel1975]

I always hand stitch.

[Dixiecat]

Unsewing a project can be very disheartening, so I admire your gumption to take apart a whole kilt! Your work in progress is fantastic too.

Word of advise: when matching thread it's best to go a shade darker than lighter than the colour you are trying to match. Hmmm, although in the box pleat case, it'll be a toss up with either the dark blue or lighter blue. Probably the darker though....

Keep the pics coming!