9 posts tagged “kiltmaking”
On my table (the lounge-table, not to be confused with the coffee, end, side, dinner, or desk tables) there was a "Dallas is awesome" type magazine with a very shiny picture of Jessica Simpson talking about how Dallas has its own color of blonde.
Boy howdy.
Actually, I shouldn't say that. I went to the Nasher Art Museum and saw Picassos, I stayed in the same hotel Queen Elizabeth II stayed in, there were many tall buildings with presumably many amenities. I had a lovely time showing off my brains in front of nearly 600 people. So yay for me.
But I am so very done with Dallas. I am home now, after a slight respite in Cap Hill, I am home with my mommy (who was dogsitting) and the SC. I have unpacked the kilt (pleats finished), set up laundry, showered, changed into comfies, and did my required bitching and moaning.
Travelling for work is not like travelling for fun -- I missed my home, my boy, my dogs, my man, my friends. I had my every base need accounted for except human company, and I wasn't willing to settle for the sort of interim company that appears (usually alcohol induced) at these sorts of things.
It's been a while since I posted on my kilt project, but it's going swimmingly. I am six pleats away from pleat completion, which is a big deal - 80% of the time you spend on a kilt is spent measuring, placing, pinning, remeasuring, repinning, sewing, remeasuring, unpinning a single pleat. When I first started it took me about 25 minutes to do one pleat (I am not even joking) and it's down to about 15 now. For those of you looking into making a kilt, I recommend multiplying the number of pleats by 20 for how many minutes you can reasonably expect to work on that section.
Also, I highly recommend the Art of Kiltmaking again, as the base guide for this, with the following notes:
- After you have accordion-folded your kilt fabric (before you start sewing anything), put the whole shebang on a bath towel -- fold up the towel for easy transport (because you're likely to find that, for example, your kitchen table is much nicer to work on than your sewing table) and it protects the fabric from light, dog fur, etc.
- Once you've calculated your pleat gradient (e.g., x millimeters at the waist and y at the hip) create a guide out of cardboard or plastic so you can help your measuring and pinning process.
- Check the back end of every pleat as you go to make sure you're enveloping the same amount of fabric each time -- you'd be surprised how often you catch yourself folding up 2 lengths instead of 1.
- Horizontal pinning works better than vertical
- When pleating with tartan, have the pleated part pinned about 1 or 2 threads off from the next length of fabric -- with the top (pleating) part a little lower. By the time you start stitching, your stitches will pull the pleated fabric up and everything will align perfectly (no ladders!)
- Measure your pleats as you go as an aggregate -- e.g., if you're haflway done with your pleats, then 1/2 of the hip measurement for the back should equal where you are. Metric is easier :)
I spent the Entire Day in Training. That's how it felt. From 8:30 to about 4pm, I attended Princples of Leadership. I learned how to motivate. I learned how to include. I learned how to collaborate. I also had to ignore everything else I had to do.
Thanks to the modeling clay they provide as a stress reliever I learned how to sculpt calla lillies and roses. This is useful because I intend to make a Bridal Shower cake soon and wanted to get my technique down. I got many compliments on the output so yay for that.
Speaking of which: the Kilt is going well. It's just the part of it that doesn't engender itself to updates. "I did pleats 14-17 last night", for example, doesn't say much. There are 33 pleats. Expect them to be done in another week or so. It takes about 20 minutes, start to finish, to properly measure, pin, and sew one pleat, because of the tapering. So -- yeah, not exciting in terms of blogsphere, but eminently satisfying. You will be happy to learn that said pleats 14-17 were done to a mix of Disturbed (Land of Confusion), the Flobots (Handlebars, and Rise), New Order (Regret), and Soundgarden (Spoonman, The Day I Tried to Live). I also learned that beeswax is a tricky thing: excellent when used sparingly, annoying (and will knot your thread like dreadlocks in a summertime afro) when you use too much. Also, it takes 20 minutes per pleat when you, I don't know, completely unstitch one because it wasn't good enough (yes, I did. That would be the fourth. But you do this with other things-- quilts, etc. I remember one time I was making a blouse and pretty much tore it apart because I didn't think it was 'finished' enough...)
I am so proud of myself, though. I said no to spending money on something that I wanted, but didn't want enough to give up other things. There was a ticket available for Corteo, the new Seattle Cirque show, and it was the foo-foo VIP cool seats version, and it was, $200. Man, I thought a while about that. $200 is bank, to be sure, but it's Cirque and it would be with GH and one life to live and all that. But I said no, because that $200 is either destined for Vegas or Mexico. TravelGrrl needs her smack. What I really need is to just get off my now narrowing ass and win the lottery. But it doesn't seem to be happening. Ergo, the self-analysis and restraint.
That coughing sound you hear (to the restraint) is some of my dearest friends. Who know me better.
Saturday found me at Pike's Place market, where I attempted to introduce GH to doughnuts (the line got increasingly larger, ala the Fibonacci Series) and succeeded in introducing him to Delaurentis. Delaurentis has a whole aisle of things that will kill me (pickled almonds?) but also carries my family's proscuitto (from Parma!) so they are wonderful and perfect, of course. I now have a new stash of saffron for spanish rice.
A twelve minute discussion, followed as a tennis match by the nice young man in the veggie stall, produced a dinnertime vegetable decision (broccoli). A four second conversation with the fishmonger produced a dinnertime meat (crab). Seven minutes and one adorable small girlchild and ponderance of chocolate fettuccini worth of wait led us to sundried tomato and basil pasta. All of it was cooked up at GH's house and I had 2nds, in spite of my "diet".
(My diet also suffered at the hands of chocolate chip cookies -- homemade by GH -- and a severe case of SpMS -- sortaPMS** -- which led me to wine).
This morning at 9am I was in a minivan (not mine) (no I don't own one, if you see my hands on the steering wheel of one I have either been blackmailed or am dead) on the way to the 2008 Sewing Expo, where I resolved not to buy anything. Not anything, you hear? I am going to be good.
Ten swatches of authentic kimono fabric, a box of glass head pins, a strand of freshwater pearls, and 1 yard of grey and red woven 100% worsted wool (skirt material, to be made late in the summer for fall debut) later, I had completely foobered that resolution as well.
And yet I'm strangely content.
**sortaPMS is when you're like me and thanks to modern chemical engineering you don't actually have an M at all, but then your body feels cheated so it manufactures all of your lovely stress into one day's worth of stress (like, say, your employee who is making the same mistakes in month 4 that she was making on day 4, etc.) Sigh!
McGuyver's kilt is now 100% metric, because dividing the back hip and waist measurement by 33 (the number of pleats) into the relevant number of inches gave me something impossible to measure in 32nds of an inch. Consequently he has a 13.4 millimeter waist pleat measurement and at 16.5 mm hip pleat measurement. Enjoy.
I started the first real stitches on the kilt this weekend, basting around the front apron. Next: the hidden pleat!
Using the math as listed in The Art of Kiltmaking, I have discovered that McGuyver's kilt will have 33 pleats** (not including the inverted ones) and that the folds are precisely 17.5 millimeters apart. I also have the underapron and overapron marked (taking the waist and hip measurements, and have figured the "splits" -- e.g., McGuyver has 41" hips; but I wouldn't allot it as 20.5" for the front and back; people have butts, you know. The tailor's chalk came in handy: because it doesn't have wax, I could easily erase my 'mistakes'.
How do you know you've made a mistake? Little eccentricities, actually. For example: when I got done marking the pleat elements, the element (or stripe) that shows up in the last pleat, should be a mirror image of the one that shows in the first pleat. That didn't happen at first, or even at second.
Then, when I tried to mark the elements using english system (inches), I had a case of element 'creep'. E.g., 10 or 12 elements down the line and I was marking a different area on a given stripe than I had before, which is not good. Hence the metric shift. It also made for easier marking of the pleat width --> you see, I have depth from the original math (17.5 mm), but that is how much fabric is used in a pleat; it is *not* how much will be showing between stitches.
I took a couple of pictures of the marking process yesterday, and will do the photo recording of the basting stitches-- which are how you cement where your over and under apron are -- later today.
I'm finding that having this be my 'project' for my Ladies' Craftacular is keeping me on a regular schedule with it. The practice kilt was literally done in fits and spurts, this one has a more steady evolution. I had a dream that I was finished with it -- the pleats were *perfect* in their sway, it was awesome -- and I was showing it to McGuyver. I wrapped it around on myself to demonstrate, and discovered it was loose on me but not on McGuyver. What an awesome dream! Not only did the kilt come out perfect but that means that I lost weight as well.
**I consider this double good luck: The Celts believed the number 3 to be good luck, and two of 'em, I think, is a good sign.
This is well-detailed in The Art of Kiltmaking, so I'm not going to reproduce it, except to say that if you take measurements months and years before the actual crafting of the kilt (cough-- like I did -- cough) make sure you're doing the kilt for someone who keeps their figure. Or can get back to those measurements.
I got McGuyver's measurements from CC, who followed the very careful "find the bellybutton and then go two fingers above it and measure *that* waist" instructions. There are 3 measurements, 1 for waist, 1 for hip, and 1 for length. Add 2 inches to the length and that's how wide your fabric will be, so for example McGuyver's measurement was 21 inches. 21+2=23 inches; since the fabric comes in 54 inch widths, I'm in fat city. I could do a kilt for someone who needs one that is 31 inches long (54-21=33-2=31). That would probably be for someone who is nearly 7 feet tall, but hey, it could happen.
Once the width was established, it was time for the Ripping of the Fabric. The most intimidating thing you can do. Naturally, I delegated it to the happy couple.
First, make about a 6" incision at the start of the yardage (or metreage).
Then, completely second-guess yourself, naturally. You'll figure out you're ok.
Well, you will once Ali tells you you are.
Then, hand the fabric to someone strong.
Note the look of sheer terror. That's $600 worth of fabric he's holding. And he's been told to rip it. You'd be nervous too.
Have him hold one end, her hold the other, and watch the fabric fly:
Next up: Math!
This is my attempt to provide an online resource for people who want to craft a traditional, pleated-to-the-sett Kilt.
You will need:
- Good fabric. And I do mean good. Strathmore is what I've heard the best about thus far, and from the samples and the actual fabric I have I agree. The individual threads are very sturdy, the right/wrong of the fabric very obvious, the warp and weft are exactly the same size. You'll need between 7 and 9 metres for an adult male, depending on his measurements. I'm using 13oz, Hamilton Red Modern, single-width. I will have enough fabric, actually, for 2 kilts.
- Good book(s). I recommend "The Art of Kiltmaking"
- Tailor's Chalk, without wax.
- The space to work with 7-9 metres of fabric
- A 10-foot measuring tape
- A metric tonne of pins, for fastening the pleats.
- The ability to do math, with fractions. Or access to someone who can.
- The understanding that all a kilt is is a pleated wrap skirt. That's it.
Why do you want to look at this blog? Aside from my own narcissim, for a good reason: The Art of Kiltmaking, and many others, rely on hand-drawn illustrations and until you get done making the kilt the process is a little abstract. I had a lot of questions when building my practice kilt, that were answered later; hopefully this frees others from the same delayed gratification.
Next up: how to measure an American male.
I finally ordered the tartan fabric today. I noticed that most of the online carriers carried the same two brands, so I did some internet investigating and located the actual weaver in Scotland, and discovered that if I order from them they exclude VAT and I get it faster. Yay for the internets!
Therefore, a portion of this blog will be to now chart the Making of the Actual Kilt. I have practiced my pleats, my inverted pleats, my darts, my stitchery; now it is time for the Big Girl Kiltmaking. I will attempt to grab a digital camera for different stages to put photos up, because I couldn't find anything like that for my first attempt.
