First time making kilt using The art of kiltmaking

[The Wizard of BC]

If you are contemplating using TAoK to make a kilt you are NOT making a practice kilt. The Book will give you the steps and techniques to produce a premium, heirloom quality traditional kilt.

But you do need to know something about hand stitching long before you ever buy any fabric or even open the book.

You MUST be proficient with a needle and thread. This is perhaps the most vital thing and the thing that is hardest to learn from a book. You must re-train your muscles and teach your eyes to stitch well.

If you want to practice I would suggest you go find an assortment of hand stitching needles. Some longer, some shorter. Some thicker and some thinner.
Then find two or three different styles of thimbles. The leather one in TAoK supliment, one worn over the end of your middle finger and one worn like a ring over the nail of your ring finger.
Find two or three 100 meter spools of good Gutterman 100% Polyester thread.
And then get some heavy weight fabric. Something about the weight and thickness of blue jean denim. In fact sacrifice an old pair of jeans.

Then sit down and practice pushing a needle through fabric. Do it over and over. The goal is to be able to sew through four layers of blue jean denim with bright, fire engine red thread and be able to make the stitches totally invisible.

Depending on your existing experience lever you may need to practice pushing a needle through fabric for a week to a month of sewing two hours a day.

Try as many different size needles as you can. Try different size and styles of thimbles. You will not know at the beginning which are best for you. You will only discover the best by doing it.

When and only when you can sew a perfectly straight fold of fabric onto another fold of fabric for over 12" and have totally invisible stitches should you open TAoK.

This is one of the things Barb and I learned at Kilt Kamp. Many students come to the Kamp with little experience and practice just pushing a needle through fabric. Many end up spending the vast majority of the 5 days just stitching their Fell Pleats. They never get to fringing aprons, installing interfacings and stabilizers or putting on waistbands. Many leave Kamp with unfinished kilts simply because they had to spend so much time just learning how to sew.

So, my advise - If you really want to make a quality, good looking kilt using the book - Learn how to sew.