Kilt Pattern
To be the kilted quilter I should be wearing a kilt. I have enjoyed wearing kilts for many years. So long that my earliest (and favorites) have completely worn out. I have commercially produced kilts by Utilikilts and Mountain Hardware. Utilikilts keeps changing their design and I prefer the older style so I decided to make my own custom pattern to make my kilt the way I like it. I dissected my favorite in several stages to capture the assembly details. I used paper to trace details and write notes of each part of the kilt. I did full scale tracings of both the finished kilt and the unfolded cloth.
The finished kilt does not lay flat due to the pleats and gathers, it forms a fan shape.
It is important to get that shape correct as that is what ultimately keeps the kilt on your hips. Inspection of the inside of the kilt shows the triangle seams that create the fan shape. These are probably better known as darts to sewists.
I secured some matching fabric, 12 oz cotton duck, from bigduckcanvas.com , and got to cutting. It takes a full 3 yards of 60" wide cloth to make this project. I tried some factory seconds and had no problems working around the "imperfections." I cut the duck into strips across the wof to create the 4 main panels of the kilt. I laid them out on the full size pattern and transferred the folding lines to the fabric. The bottom hem and front hem were pressed and stitched. The pleats were pressed in using a steam iron to get nice sharp creases which were top stitched the full height on the inside pleats and partial height on the outside pleats. The front/right was joined to the back/right, the fan shape was replicated to the pattern and the darts were pinned and sewn. This was all repeated for the left side, which was then joined to the right side panels. A waistband was created and sewn on, then belt loops (oh, so important) and pockets. Of course there was some struggling, some torn out seams, some fine, well used words, and several trial fittings. The first several panels will be re-crafted into shopping bags. Maybe I will do a tutorial on those when I make them.
The finished product, a little wrinkled...
I secured some matching fabric, 12 oz cotton duck, from bigduckcanvas.com , and got to cutting. It takes a full 3 yards of 60" wide cloth to make this project. I tried some factory seconds and had no problems working around the "imperfections." I cut the duck into strips across the wof to create the 4 main panels of the kilt. I laid them out on the full size pattern and transferred the folding lines to the fabric. The bottom hem and front hem were pressed and stitched. The pleats were pressed in using a steam iron to get nice sharp creases which were top stitched the full height on the inside pleats and partial height on the outside pleats. The front/right was joined to the back/right, the fan shape was replicated to the pattern and the darts were pinned and sewn. This was all repeated for the left side, which was then joined to the right side panels. A waistband was created and sewn on, then belt loops (oh, so important) and pockets. Of course there was some struggling, some torn out seams, some fine, well used words, and several trial fittings. The first several panels will be re-crafted into shopping bags. Maybe I will do a tutorial on those when I make them.
The finished product, a little wrinkled...
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