:) I am writing a wee blog about making a kilt

[Breagh]

I recently decided to teach myself how to make a kilt using nothing but a book and YouTube. I've been sewing at home for a while, and one day I thought, "Why not give it a go?"

Fast forward a wee while, and my living room has been taken over by pins, scissors, and measuring tapes. Armed with nothing but optimism and determination, I've started my kilt-making journey. You can follow along from day one using the link below.

https://www.breaghs-pleat-of-faith.c...inen-sacrifice

[Steve Ashton]

If I may suggest.
"The Art of Kiltmaking" by Barb Tewksbury.
This is the difinitave work on the hand stitched, anatomically waisted, "traditional" kilt.
See Barb's advertising space on the right banner.

[Breagh]

I will have a look!

Thank you for the tip!

[Steve Ashton]

Far better than any youtube video that I have ever seen.

A "Traditional" kilt is not just Tartan fabric. It is not just pleats. It is the hidden elements that give the garment shape and structure. You can't really skip these elements and hope to achieve a garment that will look, hang, swish, and last like a kilt.

The process of stitching is simply practice and understanding why you stitch the way you do. It may be the part that takes the longest, but it is actually a minor component of the whole.

[OC Richard]

A "Traditional" kilt is not just Tartan fabric. It is not just pleats. It is the hidden elements that give the garment shape and structure. You can't really skip these elements and hope to achieve a garment that will look, hang, swish, and last like a kilt.

The truth of this can be seen and felt by putting on one of the hyphen-kilts or a Pakistani kilt.

They don't conform to your body. They don't have shape, they just hang there.

I took a kiltmaking class given by co-author Elsie Stuehmeyer and a point she emphasised was that in traditional kiltmaking there are no steps that aren't absolutely necessary, no steps that can be skipped.

"The kiltmaking we did at Thomas Gordon was production kiltmaking. It had been pared down to the minimum. Time is money."

I think people need that wakeup call when they encounter the complexity of the process and think "there must be steps that can be skipped".

Just wear a kilt where some of these steps have been skipped and you'll find out.

[OC Richard]

I recently decided to teach myself how to make a kilt...armed with nothing but optimism and determination...

For sure there's a unique value in that approach.

It's deeply ingrained in the American psyche, and it's cool to see a Scot doing it.

I call it "the Yankee ingenuity" approach, the deep-down assuredness that armed with logic, ingenuity, and as you say optimism and determination a person can figure it out on their own, whatever "it" is.

I taught myself how to play bagpipes. It was the 1970s and there was nobody around to help, and no internet to turn to.

When I became a more-or-less established piper and started giving lessons, I believed that my "two steps forward one step back" learning struggle gave me an advantage as a teacher. I'd done it the hard way. I knew all the pitfalls, and guided my students around them.

With or without lessons a clever learner will get to the same place; all taking lessons does is allow the learner to get the maximum improvement from the minimum practice time.

[Breagh]

Thats such a nice way of looking at it!

And huge well done on teaching yourself the pipes that can't have been an easy feat!

I'm a big believer in you can teach yourself anything 🤞

Thank you for sharing!