My annual lectures: pleats and yardage, take three

[Alan H]

Nice, thanks for posting this info.

Alan, have you made any 8 yard knife pleat kilts? I'd be anxious to see one if you ever do.

I have made one, hand-sewn, "eight yard kilt" pleated to the sett. I made it in the Dutch Mackay Tartan for Piper George. His wife, the "Gwenlass" bought him the material and slipped it to me in secret in November of 2007. He got the kilt for Christmas 2007 and wore it to our Nor Cal Burns night this past year, so if you want to see it, you can go look up the Nor Cal Burns Night 2008 picture thread. Piper George piped in the Haggis for us, and the tartan has a lot of orange in it, for obvious reasons if you study your history.

Unfortunately the kilt was lost in the fire that destroyed his house this past summer. BTW, the Dutch MacKay tartan is only available in 10 ounce tartan, so I made it out of that and I thought it looked pretty good. I've since learned more about kiltmaking, and if I were to make another I'd go wit the same fabric, but change a few details about how I stitched it up.

My very first "traditional" kilt (I used some shortcuts, and it wasn't made out of worsted wool) was hand-sewn to Barbs instructions *more or less* and it's in the MacNicol, red, modern tartan. I stitched it up to stripe, it has 29 pleats, and I gave the leftover tartan to Panache and the F-H.C.A.G. who promptly turned it into a kilt for Sinbad, and a belt/sash for the lady. There's a pic of it in my gallery, and a *very* long thread, way, way back in the DIY forum where I wrote it out, blow by freaking blow....how I made it. It took me 47 hours of mostly hand-sewing. I still wear it a lot in the winter, though it's starting to show some strain in the stitching. I may go back through it at some point, and reinforce the things I took shortcuts in, as I like the kilt, itself quite a lot.

[ardchoille]

I have made one, hand-sewn, "eight yard kilt" pleated to the sett. I made it in the Dutch Mackay Tartan for Piper George. His wife, the "Gwenlass" bought him the material and slipped it to me in secret in November of 2007. He got the kilt for Christmas 2007 and wore it to our Nor Cal Burns night this past year, so if you want to see it, you can go look up the Nor Cal Burns Night 2008 picture thread. Piper gorge pipe in the Haggis for us, and the tartan has a lot of orange in it, for obvious reasons if you study your history.

Unfortunately the kilt was lost in the fire that destroyed his house this past summer. BTW, the Dutch MacKay tartan is only available in 10 ounce tartan, so I made it out of that and I thought it looked pretty good. I've since learned more about kiltmaking, and if I were to make another I'd go wit the same fabric, but change a few details about how I stitched it up.

My very first "traditional" kilt (I used some shortcuts, and it wasn't made out of worsted wool) was hand-sewn to Barbs instructions *more or less* and it's in the MacNicol, red, modern tartan. I stitched it up to stripe, it has 29 pleats, and I gave the leftover tartan to Panache and the F-H.C.A.G. who promptly turned it into a kilt for Sinbad, and a belt/sash for the lady. There's a pic of it in my gallery, and a *very* long thread, way, way back in the DIY forum where I wrote it out, blow by freaking blow....how I made it. It took me 47 hours of mostly hand-sewing. I still wear it a lot in the winter, though it's starting to show some strain in the stitching. I may go back through it at some point, and reinforce the things I took shortcuts in, as I like the kilt, itself quite a lot.

Ah, I have got to see these
Thanks again!