okay, for all us new landers in Canada, US, Mexico, etc. If you are buying tartan, you can look online for that. Flower of Scotland is popular for all Scots people. Ireland likewise has a green and blue tartan for everyone from Ireland or Irish heritage. The Scots do tartans by name, the Irish by county. But maybe that's in the past everyone moves and changes name with marriage. There are tartans for US citizens with Scotch heritage and the same for the Irish. so don't worry about a tartan, there is one for you or just pick out one you like and declare it your family tartan. Since war is long gone in Ireland and Scotland, may as well get what you want. but those are for people getting genuine wool tartan which is custom woven and will run you $100 or more per yard with a $300 minimum because someone has to set up the floor loom with miles of warp (lengthwise strings) and then pass a shuttle back and forth thru the design. or get your own sheep, shears, carding drum, spinning wheel, and floor loom and good luck!
generally, I would recommend 4 to 5 yards for a woman's kilt. 6 yards for a man's kilt. the hem is not sewn, it is only stay stitched 1/2 in from the bottom so it frays nicely. and there are no darts, jut pleats. Used 4.6 yards for the last kilt I made and I came out great. that is a printed fabric, not a woven tartan. joann's does have woven tartan in pure cotton in quite a few styles. I wish they had wool, but they don't
That came out very nice, but I also just watched another wrap skirt video, and she overlapped hers the opposite way from you. Does it really matter, or would it be personal preference???
I was on the internet looking for a tutorial on making a kilt (they're easy right?) and all I got was a bunch of yada yada, so instead of taking 2 hours to make a kilt with an inset waist band and zipper (my fav, easy to put on, take off and store), I ran a bunch of videos and it took 5 hours. Yikes, that's like for a corseted evening gown or costume!. so here's what I did. take your tartan and cut in half (for 45 in wide fabric), you don't need to pin it all in advance and it's actually a drawback. I had 4.6 yards of fabric and used 6" pleats. you don't have to do anything in advance, it turns out. cut fabric in half down the middle. tape a ruler or use that masking tape printed in inches on it in front of your sewing machine. If you want your kilt flat in front, measure between your hip bones and start pleating after that measurement (somewhere around 18" to 20" approx). I wanted my kilt pleated all around so I started 2" for the zipper and then started every 6". figure where 6" is down on your plaid and that will be your vertical mark to stop sewing at. now use you arithmetic skills to figure out all your inches around, how many 6" horizontal widths you want (mine was 28 pleats), and my waist 28" (okay, not my real waist), so I head to put 1" in between the 28 pleats! so I gathered my 6" pleat, squared it up and sewed 2" from the pleat fold back along the edge of the pleat for 6" long. back tack, go to the next pleat and sew in the same manner until you finished all 28 pleat. Oh and I really had to say this but I'm going to use the dreaded P word. Pin. Pin at the top, middle and bottom before you sew to keep everything in perfect alignment. Now when you are done, don't make the mistake I did. The pleats will flop either way, so which way do you choose? the sewing machine friendly way! which means flop all your pleats to the right, facing the kilt backside with the waist band up facing up. I then hand tacked each pleat down and to the right. If you want to put in muslin facing, now is the time to do it. I did two rows of hand tacking and it didnt take too long. Now take a length of the same piece of fabric or your contrasting color (I used red because my kilt is rainbow plaid by Joann's dot com). I measured a 6.5" wide long strip (WOF or width of fabric). take your strip and right sides together on the front, 2.5" from the top of the waist band, sew the length. Flop it over to the wrong side of the kilt or back side. Pin (I know, another dreaded P word). Now on the front side, stitch in the ditch the length of the waist band which should catch the waistband fabric on the back side. and if you did a flat front, you're done. for pleating all around, continue on. Trim either end of the waist band. sew the side seams, leaving an opening for a 7" zipper. Inset zipper according to package instructions. Worked great and this should take no more than 2 hours. I don't know why there isn't a tutorial on this, but there's not. Of course if you have a flat front kilt you can use buckles to complete or velcro. Sticky back or sew on velcro works fine for renaissance faire kilts used occasionally. ebay and etsy have kilt belts and buckles lots of them, or check out your local thrift shop.
You can wear whatever you want regardless of sex or gender. It's just fabric. It only has meaning if we give it meaning. On the subject of kilts, they were traditionally worn by men.
@@genera1013 thanks for your reply. Are you a woman? If so, how would you react if you see a relative male of you wearing a skirt like this in front of you.
