Reverse Kingussie simple tartan kilt

[Pleater]

Now I will start on the right side of the kilt.

In sewing the pleats on the left side I began an inch or so from the centre back so that the other half of the kilt can be joined on with a flat seam.

The right and left pieces are overlapped and sewn along each side of the cream stripes, then the visible edge is turned under and sewn down to hide the fringe and locking thread of the selvedge.

That is stripe 1 - I can now work on the right side of the kilt just by counting the stripes.

On this kilt everything is working out well.

The apron has nine stripes, with cream at each end and the centre, which is good as the red is not so prominent. I am counting both the red and cream stripes on this project as they are both significant, on other kilts I would count only one colour of stripe. The apron is symetrical.

The last cream stripe is just far enough from the edge to work out. If it had not been right then I would have moved the apron one stripe inwards, so the edges and centre would have had a red stripe. All the pleats would then, probably, have moved one stripe - so they would start and finish cream, not red, and then I would probably have pinched a stripe from the right side for the inner centre back - that would be stripe 0 - as a Physicist I always remember the Laws of Thermodynamics. (There is a Zeroth law of Thermodynamics, one of those oups moments in science. We don't mention it - it could happen to anybody.)

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Pleater]

Stripe 1 is cream and centre back.

Stripe 8 is red and is centre of the 1st visible pleat to the right - matching the one on the left of centre back.

Alternate colours of stripes now lie in the pleats, every 3rd stripe is visible on a pleat, making eleven. I pin the folds, using two pins for each in the top couple of inches, and check that the stripe is in the correct place relative to the edge - when they are laid out in a line approximately in place any error usually stands out.

The fabric join within the pleats is on stripe 27. Stripes 26 and 29 are visible, the selvedge of the upper piece is close to the inner fold of the pleat and well hidden.

Stripe 44 is at the edge of the under apron pleat, and hidden.

Stripe 45 is cream and on the edge of the under apron, matching stripe 53 which is the last one.

When I make the next kilt from the material it will have 5 strips of fabric, 25ft, I will have a foot or so spare, enough to make fringes for both the outer aprons and bind the edge of the under apron on this one if required.

I can't cut a strip off the bolt edge to edge for this, as the grid is not square and the stripes would not match if turned 90 degrees.

The fringed edges will match the shape of the other side of the aprons by having a dart sewn in close to the edge but the cream stripe will probably be left visible right up to the waist band.

Anne the Pleater :ootd: