Lardbelly, or "the tale of the tail" and Barb's fine book

[fluter]

44 waist
46 hips?

46 true waist, 44 at the "Levi's waist," 46 hips. Sounds like a cylinder.

But if I'm reading correctly, there's a bit of an overhang at the tummy & "underhang" in the behinder parts. Sounds like a trapezoid.

I have inferred --- and I await being corrected by the experts! that the conventional approach is to measure the hips as though the line of the tummy continued straight down, so that the aprons will hang straight down from the true waist in front.

[creativeaccents]

46 true waist, 44 at the "Levi's waist," 46 hips. Sounds like a cylinder.

But if I'm reading correctly, there's a bit of an overhang at the tummy & "underhang" in the behinder parts. Sounds like a trapezoid.

I have inferred --- and I await being corrected by the experts! that the conventional approach is to measure the hips as though the line of the tummy continued straight down, so that the aprons will hang straight down from the true waist in front.

Trouble is that there is a disproportional apportionment, with the 46 up top mostly in the front and the 46 on the bottom out behind. This was one reason I thought to go straight to the traditional design in Barb's book. Somehow it seems that with "lower riding" kilts the narrower front panels just don't want to wrap evenly and the pleats on the side tend to want to flare outwards.

I loved the looks of the kilts on Celtic Thunder as well as the beauties that Matt has produced in tweed! My thought was for something like a garnet or maroon tweed, but before I cut anything, just wanted some sanity checking as I complete the figures of the appendix "B" type. THANK YOU GUYS!!!

[The Wizard of BC]

A couple of points. The measuring technique where you measure straight down vertically from the stomach is my system. It will only work with my kilts. That's because I then do things with those numbers that are not appearant when the kilt is built.

If you are using Barb's book use her measuring system.

About your box pleats. I would discourage against many small Box Pleats. Remember, the depth of the pleat is 1/2 the width of the reveal in a box pleat. So, for example if your box pleats are 1" wide they are only 1/2" deep.
Much of your swish factor will come from the depth of the pleat. In a knife pleat you will end up with 2"and sometimes 3" of depth depending on the Sett of the Tartan. If using a solid color you can make the depth whatever you want and most will opt for the deepest pleat that they have sufficient fabric for.