Next up: The Gray Stewart

[Alan H]

When I started this obsession, I had a short list of kilts that I wanted. A nice MacNaughton was on that short list, so was Holyrood and prominent on the list was a kilt in the Gray Stewart tartan.

Me being excrutiatingly budget-minded, I couldn't make myself pay for full-price Gray Stewart. I waited for over a year to find some on discount, but it never came up. Then, while looking over kilt skirts for the Luminous Joan, I found a Gray Stewart skirt. I PM'd the seller on Ebay and asked her if she had two....No, she didn't.

Darn.

So I kind of gave up on it. Nine months later I got a message from her saying that she had two Gray Stewart kilt skirts in the exact same tartan, did I want them? YES!!!! Upshot was, for 7+ yards of 10 ounce 100% wool, I paid $35 plus shipping from Eastern Canada.

Mind you, about a month after this happened I came across 4 yards of Gray Stewart on sale from an Ebay seller, but what are ya gonna do, you know?

I've had to take the skirts completely apart to get to the cloth, but that's OK. While they were the same material, they were turned up and hemmed in different places, so today I ripped out the blind stitching on one of them, ironed the hem area flat, and re-turned it up so that the two pieces match. I'm about 1/3 of the way along, blind-stitching the hem again. One that's done I will cut off the fringed edge of one skirt, triple zig-zag the raw edge and join the two pieces. And then....

...my Gray Stewart Kilt, in the wings for almost 4 years, goes under construction.

[Downix]

I'll admit a fondness for Grey Stewart. I'll keep an eye on this.

[Jake_S]

Good find. That is not a bad price for the amount of material that you got.

Jake

[Alan H]

Well, I finished blind-hemming the kilt. CRIKEY, that does it for blind-stitch hemming kilts...nver again..

Today I laid out the over-apron and figured out the pleating. It all works out very serendipitously. The natural subdivision of tartan elements all work out to just under 1-inch per element, thus 1 inch per pleat. If I center it such that the center-seam is nicely buried, I get 26 pleats across the backside, five per sett and one extra tucked in over on the far right. I have plenty for a nice, deep under-apron pleat and I folded back a nice deep fold under the fringed edge of the over -apron as well. This will help with how the kilt looks, since the material is on the light side. I'm pleating this one to sett. If I pleated to stripe I'd have something like 30 pleats, which is pretty darned nice. However, I want practice pleating to sett...that's half of what this kilt is all about and 26 pleats is just fine. Looking it over as it lay on the kitchen table this morning...

...Looks pretty nice. This one could be really good.

I couldn't ask for much better than that.

[Jake_S]

Alan,
We need pictures


Jake

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

Well, I finished blind-hemming the kilt. CRIKEY, that does it for blind-stitch hemming kilts...nver again..

....

Oh, Alan, I was sooooo looking forward to our drunken, blind-stitching, foot-rubbing day, err, week, err however long it takes.





Be well,

[Alan H]

Alan,
We need pictures


Jake

Oh, there'll be pictures when it's all done. I figure I bombard this forum with more than enough blow-by-blow accounts as it is.

Mind you, I mean pictures of the KILT...

...not pictures of the drunken, blind-stitching, foot-rubbing day, err, week, of blind-stitch hemming with the F-H.C.A.G.


oh, maybe I'll snap one when I have the pleats finished

[Alan H]

Progress is slow, but has not entirely stopped... This is my kitchen table, scene of many a kiltmaking debacle.



...seven yards, twenty seven pleats, to the sett. I used to be intimidated to pleat to the sett. Now I "get it" and it's fine.

[meinfs]

... I used to be intimidated to pleat to the sett. Now I "get it" and it's fine.

Looking good Alan. I have not done knife-pleating to sett yett! Hopefully soon. (One of my early projects was a Stewart Gray. I made 31 (I think) knife pleats to stripe on that one).

[Alan H]

Looking good Alan. I have not done knife-pleating to sett yett! Hopefully soon. (One of my early projects was a Stewart Gray. I made 31 (I think) knife pleats to stripe on that one).

That's a nice looking kilt. I'd probably have 30+ pleats in this one if I'd pleated to stripe, but part of the whole point of this project is to get comfortable with pleating to sett so I have the option available to me for the Ancient MacNaughton. Besides, most of my kilts are pleated to stripe (or to "no stripe") and it's time to introduce some variety into the collection!