I recently finished making my very first kilt, and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. One thing that will irritate me for the rest of my life is that my darts don't look very good. Around the time I finished making it, I had a Stillwater Kilt arrive. I also own an Amerikilt.

Looking at the Amerikilt, it seems that they pleat the fabric, cut it off at the waist and then attach a piece of fabric that does the tapering without the use of darts. It seems rather convenient and I wonder if any of you know of a pattern that I could look at for that piece since I would never rip up my kilt just to find out.

But the Stillwater Kilt is an absolute mystery. First of all, it's beautiful, but I can't seem to figure out how they tapered the waist. They aren't using an unpleated band like the Amerikilt, the pleats go all the way to the top. And I've looked very closely and I can't find any darts either. So how is it done? One possibility is that I'm so fat that they didn't have to taper the waist, but I think there must be some tapering. Another possibility is that they did such a good job of hiding the darts that I just can't find them. Any other possibilities?