First "traditional" kilt project

[Oddern]

Barbe's book is a very good guide for creating a Kilt. I have firsthand experience with it. I have never before sewn more than a few buttons up til now, and now I'm almost finished with my first "Tank".
Lykke til!

[sydnie7]

Heming, no problem, I was just amending my blanket statement -- and had put an "end weasel words" code at the bottom of the paragraph until I thought that might offend our resident Mender of Same! Good luck with both/all projects and keep us posted.

[Heming]

Bump! The book arrived yesterday, and I've read it through once. I'd really appreciate any thoughts you might have on pleating before I rip my fabric...

[Pleater]

Read the book again - the first bit at least, then measure the fabric, think about it, check what you want to make and measure again, just to be sure. You can measure as much as you want, but once the fabric is divided there is no going back.

It is always a bit daunting the first time, but if you can work out what you want to end up with and visualise the finished kilt with the hem in the right place and enough fabric between it and the waistband etc., it seems to help - at least for me it does.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Oddern]

Bump! The book arrived yesterday, and I've read it through once. I'd really appreciate any thoughts you might have on pleating before I rip my fabric...

As Pleater says. And be extremely careful when you sew the pleats together. The slightest deviation will be very visible.

[Mipi]

Use red stripe for hemming. White will pick up dirt in no time and will divert too much focus to hem. My opinion is to use darkest parts of fabric for hem.

My 5 cents!

[Erisianmonkey]

And before you even get there, having made a few PV kilts myself, I would advise sewing a few pennies into the bottom corners of the aprons. PV just doesn't have the weight one would like in the apron area. Two or three pennies sewn discreetly into the end corners of the aprons help for those windy days. Cheers on your first kiltmaking experience. It's a lot of fun.

[Heming]

Do a few pennies really make thet much a difference? I would think a heavy kilt pin should do the trick (I have a brushed steel one) ...

Then again, experience is better than eny theory, so I might just take you up on the small weight idea. How do I make sure they don't show through to the front? How much weight is needed? One penny is about a tenth of an ounce.

[Erisianmonkey]

I use three pennies in the corner under the fringe, and the same in the corner of the under apron. I've found that it does make a difference. Yes, a kilt pin will work on the outer apron, I don't wear them myself though. If you do wear a kilt pin every time you wear a kilt, then you might not need to worry about it, and I'm sure most folks don't. I do it because we get some crazy winds around our place and I've had my under apron on the kilts where I haven't used pennies end up whipping around like no tomorrow. Yes, it's only 3/10 of an ounce or so, but it works for me. As far as the hiding goes, on the under apron, it won't really matter (but you'll be surprised how little they show if you use a wide hem on the apron), and on the over apron, they can be hidden in the fringe rather than tucked in the hem itself.

I've only made eight kilts, so I'm not an expert yet by any means, so if Barb or someone else who knows what they're doing tells me I'm wrong I'll accept it, but it works for me. I discovered this when I made my wife's mini kilt, and it has kept her from showing more than she wanted to, so I have gone back and added pennies to some of my previous creations. It helps, especially for someone like me who doesn't wear a kilt pin.

[Heming]

Only eight kilts is still eight kilts more than I've made, so I'll take your advice for valid until an expert tells me otherwise!