Shortening a kilt?

[Seaforth Piper]

Never Never NEVER 'hem' a kilt! the pleats won't hang properly and people like me will publically mock you...

first step: make sure that you can properly tighten the straps and buckles, and move them so you can. I can often shorten a kilt by a couple of inches with this one step.

2nd step: move the straps and buckles down by the required amount (they will stay at the same point on your torso when you tighten them, which lifts the kilt.

3rd step: shorten from the top if required (bearing in mind that kilts in general and military kilts in particular are worn higher than modern eyes find usual.

[Paul Henry]

Never Never NEVER 'hem' a kilt! the pleats won't hang properly and people like me will publically mock you...

first step: make sure that you can properly tighten the straps and buckles, and move them so you can. I can often shorten a kilt by a couple of inches with this one step.

2nd step: move the straps and buckles down by the required amount (they will stay at the same point on your torso when you tighten them, which lifts the kilt.

3rd step: shorten from the top if required (bearing in mind that kilts in general and military kilts in particular are worn higher than modern eyes find usual.

You are very much in the minority here, heming can be done very well on lots of kilts, indeed on some fabrics you have no choice for example many tweeds.If done well the pleats will still hang well.
I'd have to say that you aren't very kind mocking people either.
I've got no problem making sure that the kilt is at the right height, that can often solve problems, but please be kind to other kilt wearers

[Seaforth Piper]

You are very much in the minority here, heming can be done very well on lots of kilts, indeed on some fabrics you have no choice for example many tweeds.If done well the pleats will still hang well.
I'd have to say that you aren't very kind mocking people either.
I've got no problem making sure that the kilt is at the right height, that can often solve problems, but please be kind to other kilt wearers

Perhaps I'm in the minority because I maintain higher standards...

Someone hand this guy a box of tissues.....

[Paul Henry]

Perhaps I'm in the minority because I maintain higher standards...

Someone hand this guy a box of tissues.....

It not really sabout higher standards, there are many very fine kiltmaker on this board who will hem if they need to, of course it's easier if you don't have to hem, but there isn't anything inferior about a hemmed kilt.

Remember this is a community board, and it isn't considered nice to mock other kilted folk

[ChattanCat]

Never Never NEVER 'hem' a kilt! the pleats won't hang properly and people like me will publically mock you...

first step: make sure that you can properly tighten the straps and buckles, and move them so you can. I can often shorten a kilt by a couple of inches with this one step.

2nd step: move the straps and buckles down by the required amount (they will stay at the same point on your torso when you tighten them, which lifts the kilt.

3rd step: shorten from the top if required (bearing in mind that kilts in general and military kilts in particular are worn higher than modern eyes find usual.

Generally speaking, it is better to have a non-hemmed kilt. There are circumstances that will not allow any other alternative, that is when you do a hem. I have made kilts with a hem because of a bad selvage or if the person is expected to grow in the near future. Most will never know that the kilt is hemmed, it can be hidden well if done right.

Kilt challenge: What would you do if you had to make a kilt with material that has bad selvages?

Cheers,

[Seaforth Piper]

Generally speaking, it is better to have a non-hemmed kilt. There are circumstances that will not allow any other alternative, that is when you do a hem. I have made kilts with a hem because of a bad selvage or if the person is expected to grow in the near future. Most will never know that the kilt is hemmed, it can be hidden well if done right.

Kilt challenge: What would you do if you had to make a kilt with material that has bad selvages?

Cheers,

I wouldn't make it - which is why I don't buy cloth from those mills that weave a 'tuck' selvedge, and I tend to tell customers who have not yet reached "Mans's estate" to come back when they''ve more nearly reached their full adult height.

I can see a hemmed kilt from across the parade square, and I don't think it looks good.

[Arlen]

I wouldn't make it - which is why I don't buy cloth from those mills that weave a 'tuck' selvedge, and I tend to tell customers who have not yet reached "Mans's estate" to come back when they''ve more nearly reached their full adult height.

I can see a hemmed kilt from across the parade square, and I don't think it looks good.

With all due respect, a friend of mine is a tailor for his regiment and regularly blind hems regimental Kilts for the folk who are simply too short for moving the buckles to work. His official guidelines state that since the Kilts are often passed on to other lads it is better to do a blind hem that can be taken down later than to cut length from the top and leave the kilt useable only to a small percent of the regiment in the future.

I've seen his work and even with my very critical eye there's not a hint of pleats splaying or anything that looks different from the usual selvage.

[Barb T]

I have hemmed many kilts. If it is done properly, it can't be seen from 5' away, let alone from across the parade ground. In our pipe band, we simply can't afford to put a new kilt on every new piper - we have to move buckles and hem kilts that the band already owns. Our dress and deportment officer once gave me the same kind of hassle - will look awful, why did you do that, etc. etc. I challenged him at one of our band events to pick out the kilts with hems. He couldn't. Not until he actually felt the bottoms of every kilt could he tell which were hemmed.

Yes, a badly hemmed kilt will be obvious. But a properly hemmed kilt is not. The main difference for a set of kilts (such as band kilts) is that, with a hem, the part of the sett at the bottom of the kilt is not the same because you've turned up the bottom (provided, of course, that all the tartan was woven the same way in the first place). It's not the hem that shows, it's the difference in the part of the sett at the bottom of the kilt. If you absolutely have to have everyone looking exactly the same (e.g., your band tartan has a big yellow cross in the center of the apron, it might look odd to have one or two kilts hemmed. But realize that it's not the hem itself that shows.

And, if all you have is one kilt, it's far better, in my estimation, to have a kilt that's the right length than to stand on the ceremony of "kilts don't have hems". Just do it properly, and no one will know.

[acolander]

With all due respect, a friend of mine is a tailor for his regiment and regularly blind hems regimental Kilts for the folk who are simply too short for moving the buckles to work. His official guidelines state that since the Kilts are often passed on to other lads it is better to do a blind hem that can be taken down later than to cut length from the top and leave the kilt useable only to a small percent of the regiment in the future.

I've seen his work and even with my very critical eye there's not a hint of pleats splaying or anything that looks different from the usual selvage.

Would he be the tailor for the RRS, or another Scottish regt of some other CW country? If the former, I would be interested to see any pics if possible of a hemmed military box pleat kilt (the subject of the OP's post), or of any hemmed military kilt if the latter.

I have hemmed many kilts. If it is done properly, it can't be seen from 5' away, let alone from across the parade ground...

...The main difference for a set of kilts (such as band kilts) is that, with a hem, the part of the sett at the bottom of the kilt is not the same because you've turned up the bottom (provided, of course, that all the tartan was woven the same way in the first place). It's not the hem that shows, it's the difference in the part of the sett at the bottom of the kilt.

Not to speak for Seaforth Piper, but from across the parade ground (aka "meat grinder") one can tell if a military kilt has been hemmed (badly or not) solely for this reason as the sett on military kilts are a proscribed distance from the selvedge.

Similarily, one can also discern a WPG reproduction kilt at a distance by the same method as all the setts on WPG kilts I have seen were not woven at the proscribed distance, rather they will often vary in distance from kilt to kilt of the same sett as can be seen from pics both here on this forum and elsewhere.

From a military perspective, I would tend to agree w/ Seaforth Piper that variances as such doesn't look good on parade where everyone is to be uniform.


BTW, in case Arlen doesn't have any available pics, does anyone here have any pics of a hemmed military kilt w/ box pleats? Or even knife for that matter...

[Barb T]

True, and that's why I added the caveat that a hem does change the part of the sett at the bottom of the kilt. But, if you're not in a military regiment and can live with a different part of the sett at the bottom of the kilt, the hem itself won't show if it's done properly.

Personally, I think the bigger question is what a 4-5" hem does to the swing of the kilt. If you hem it that much, the proportion of the fell to the total kilt length goes wacko, and the fell is stitched down too far for the length of the kilt and the kilt doesn't swing properly. If the reverse is true and you're letting a kilt down, you can always stitch the pleats down a little farther. But you can't unstitch the pleats if you put a hem in because the pleats are cut out.