Finished two kilt projects tonight!

[Erisianmonkey]

I just finished retailoring my Irish National SWK Thrifty into a box pleat, and while attaching the buckles, I got out the camo kilt with pockets that I had almost completed awhile back and got the buckles onto it as well. All in all, a successful night's sewing.

Thanks to everyone who helped with advice on the box pleat. Figuring out how to do it was the hard part. Actually doing it was incredibly easy. Much easier than a knife pleat in fact. I was shocked at that. It really does seem like the box pleat would be more complex. Actual pleating and sewing time on this project, not counting test pleating and getting past the initial hurdle on the damn thing was only about sixteen hours, and that includes breaks to rest my hands and back. (Arthritis sucks.) My knife pleated kilts take a minimum of twenty hours. Hell, my skirts take a minimum of six!

The camo kilt is my prototype for a multi-pocket kilt. I have two zippered side internal cargo pockets, as well as two slash pockets. On the under apron, I have three pen pockets, and a pocket for a knife or leatherman.

As with all my kilts, both close with two straps and fastex buckles. I will say that working with the fabric of the SWK has given me a new appreciation for the folks who do the sewing on SWK's. While the fabric has a great feel and texture to wear, it is a pain in the posterior to work with. There is a stretch to the material that sent me straight up the wall. There are mistakes in this kilt that probably won't be visible to many others, but I know they are there. Because of the stretch, there's a kind of wave to the sett in some places that made it impossible to line it up correctly. I would hope that anyone thinking about following in my footsteps and completely redoing a SWK Thrifty will realize that they won't be getting a super high quality kilt out of it. It will still be in the range of a SWK Thrifty (i.e., a casual type kilt), just more customized.

Pics to come. I've got to put the sewing machine and stuff away first. I'll post just the kilts tonight, and me in them tomorrow.