Experimenting with a demin kilt. Help keep me motivated!

[JDaugherty]

Quick question. how/where would i measure to determine how long the pleats will be? I found a looong strip of light blue material that'll work perfectly. It's definitely more than long enough but i'm concerned it might not be er... 'tall" enough. Do I measure from the top of my rump or halfway down?

Rereading yoru post a few times, pleater, so it sinks in. I think I'm following your visualizationg well, but I'm gonna lay the material out in a bit and snap a picture to make sure i'm understanding. lol Btw, very helpful to explain it i na way to help visualize it. Thank you for that. (It's odd that I've always had a great imagination and loved reading; yet I have to *see* something to understand it...>.<)

[Pleater]

The backing only needs to be behind the free part of the pleats and maybe a half inch taller for the seam. The rest of the way up to the waist can be denim joined together using tape as a backing and joining material.


So - if you need a standard 'drop' of 24 inches and the fell is to be - 8 inches you would need to have backing material for the 16 inches from bottom of fell to lower edge PLUS any hem and about half an inch at the top to hold the folds in place.

You'll need something 24 inches for the under apron pleats and under apron as they are open waist to lower edge, plus hem and top edge, but you can always cut the fabric into 26/27 inch strips and rotate it 90 degrees from the pleats.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[JDaugherty]

Wow, that pot of coffee must have hit my brain just right. I actually followed that perfectly on the 2nd read-through. You, my dear moderator, are a genius; and have solved my biggest/most confusing issue. You rock! Gonna get started on it within the next hour. Hopefully my next post will be of some furthur-in-progress pictures! Thanks again Pleater!

[JDaugherty]

Progress is a little slow going today; but I did cut the strips of denim and measure out the extra material i found. IMAG0225.jpg Took a picture of the cut strips on top of the one peice of extra material i've got for the pleats. Per pleater's suggestion, i made sure to cut a 24inch peice for the under apron pleat. unfortunately it didnt leave me with a ton. what I have left is 30 inches across and 19 inches tall. lol But as they say, where there's a will....
I still need to clean up the denim strips, iron out the creases they had and start courting the sewing machine. >.< I hope to get at least a little more done tonight.

[Hawk]

Are you shooting for something like this JDaugherty?

Hawk

[JDaugherty]

wasn't the plan origionally but it is now hawk hah Unfortunatly I seem to be in a cycle where i figure out one problem and realize another. I just realized that my demin strips were cut uneven. so im gonna have to re measure their width. all 12 of em. and cut them to the right size *headdesks* i'm gonna see if i can lure my mom into taking me to the discount material place in town tomorrow and drop 10-15$ on material for me. This jeans to kilt is killing me. Doable yes but killing me slowly. lol

[Tarheel]

Here's what I see up to this point. Sorry I came so late to interact with your progress. 1) You've got the basic materials. 2) You've got tech advise from Pleater and a working beginning. 3) Hawk gave you a visual. 4) Simple modification to tweak a final design. How are those for a summary? HINT: A few extra and unexpected "Honey-Do" chores you can provide as a surprise to your Mom, will get the needed material with praise and a smile. From this side of the screen I see it coming together into a great project that I expect you'll be proud to show.

[JDaugherty]

Thank you Tarheel; it helps me motivate a little more to see it laid out so plainly. LoL I guess I'm closer to finished then I thought. I just need to breathe and have a little more patience with myself and I'm sure you're right: I will finish and I will be proud to show it.

[JDaugherty]

After some fighting all day with the demonic device I can only be assume was invented by satan with help from hitler (aka the Sewing Machine); I managed to finish sewing all the strap/pleats together! It's starting to...almost..resemble...a kilt's distant relative

Taking a short V8 fusion break and recouping before I attack more. lol but here's an update pic YAY!IMAG0227.jpg
Edit: Pictured is what wil be teh bottom. the top part isnt as well done, since some/alot of hte green will be hidden. XD

[Tarheel]

You are welcome, and thank you for the kind words in return. Now to attack the "Demonic machine" issue. Imagine two brother (bicycle makers by trade) coming up with the aerodynamic reality to build an aircraft/glider. Keep the matra, "I am the boss of my kilt destiny". Another V-8 fusion will help as well.