Making a Kilt - a few tips and tricks

September 24, 2024 6 Comments on Making a Kilt - a few tips and tricks

by Molly Hamilton

When I was growing up, my paternal grandmother had a shop in Banner Elk, NC called The Gaelic Shop.  She sold imported goods from Scotland and Ireland, many of which she sourced from her trips to those countries.  She would find crafts people working from their cottages and set up a relationship for supplying her shop.  She carried hand knit wool sweaters, scarves, belts, sporrans, leather goods, tea towels, and many other things from classy-but-touristy knick-knacks to estate jewelry.  And she also carried kilts, in many of the clan tartans.  Her shop smelled like wool, leather, and lavender and I loved it.  

We also participated in the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games for many years when I was a child.  My grandfather had some kind of leadership position in the Armstrong clan for a few years and we would spend all day, every day of the Games on the mountain.  I cherished those times -- an amazing picnic that my grandmother would pack, bagpipes and fiddles playing, dancers to watch, all the games, and the vendors with their beautiful things to buy.  And all on top of a beautiful mountain meadow with the summer sun and breeze and everyone having a good time.

When we at Folkwear decided to feature the 152 Scottish Kilts pattern this month, I also decided we needed to make a kilt for our sample collection.  We have a (women's) kilt skirt and a child's kilt, but no man's kilt.  And I've been wanting to get photos of a kilt for the website too.  The woman's kilt pattern is included in the 152 Scottish Kilts (called a kilt skirt), and a child's kilt pattern can be found with our 154 Child's Scottish Kilt and Jacket pattern

And, I wanted to make a kilt from our pattern.  Our instructions for making a kilt are slightly intimidating when you read through it -- very detailed and with a lot of steps.  They were developed for Folkwear by Ann Stewart, a world-renowned kilt maker (her daughter still makes kilts in her shop). These instructions are detailed and authentic for making a tailored, traditional Scottish kilt.  And they do not use any pattern pieces.  The kilt is made from a length of tartan.  No pattern pieces are needed -- just some good measurements, rulers, thread, and needles.  And a bit of time and patience.  Once I started the kilt, I found that it went fairly easily if I took it step-by-step.

In this post I am going to go over a few things about making the kilt. I am not going to show you how to make the kilt (that's what the pattern is for - and it is too involved for me to do at this point), but I am going to give a few helpful tips and tricks that I hope will help you navigate this pattern easily and successfully.  

Most of the kilt is hand sewn. So keep that in mind when starting on this pattern. 

First though, this was also my first attempt at making a kilt.  So, if you see something that looks wrong (or is wrong), please forgive (and kindly let us know if the comments).  I am not a master tailor and I skipped a few steps (I'll let you know about that below).  This may be sacrilege to some, but mostly I want to help make this kilt pattern accessible to everyone.  So, don't be intimidated, but also don't be too critical!

Measuring

First of all, I did not have great measurements for this kilt.  The measurements I was given turned out to be too big for the person I was making it for (I am not sure what happened!), but the kilt fit the measurements I was given!  So just bear with the not super great fit on our model (I need to find a larger man!).  But the instructions made the right size for the measurements, so that was good!  However, a big tip will be to get good measurements and test the kilt out on the person it is for (if you can) before sewing the pleats at the hip-to-waist (Step 3).  You can always adjust pretty easily at that point  by adding a pleat to either or both sides (adjusting the over- and under-apron size and darts) and/or adjusting the pleats at the waist to get to the size you need.

Measuring, and measuring accurately, is critical for making a kilt.  Waist and hip measurements, length measurements, difference between waist and hip, distance between waist and hip -- all these are important measurements.  And I found it helpful to have a sheet of paper with all these numbers on it and space below where I could do some of the basic calculations that are needed for making the kilt.  So, I made a simple sheet you can print out and use when you are making a kilt to help you keep track of these numbers and refer back to when kilt-making.  Download and print the free PDF here.

Planning Your Kilt

For this kilt, I used a piece of wool tartan that I found in my fabric stash.  It was one my maternal grandmother had bought many years ago, and from the label is a Douglas clan tartan.  Her family may have had a connection to the Douglas clan, but I also think she really loved the name Douglas and liked the tartan.  Anyway, you can search official tartans on the Scottish Register of Tartans to find your family's tartan.   Finding tartan fabric is not easy.  You likely won't find it at the local fabric store or even your regular online fabric shop.  I will list some suppliers of tartan fabric at the bottom, but you can also find these fabrics at any of the Scottish Games or Festivals that happen in various places.  

The pattern (and a kilt, in general) calls for 8 yards of single width fabric (30-32" wide) or 4 yards of double width (60" wide) fabric.  Again, this might be sacrilege, but I only had just over 3 yards of double width fabric, and I was making a kilt for a large man, and it worked fine.  You may not get quite as many pleats (though it seemed good to me), but you can work with shorter lengths than suggested and still get good results.  

I cut the long folded edge of the fabric off when I cut the fabric down to the length I needed.  Later I used this folded edge piece to make the waistband, belt pieces, and belt loops.  I laid out my two pieces on the ground (where I had the most room) and labeled each side with chalk to mark the right-side-up and which side was to be the under-apron and over-apron.  This was a huge help and I think very important.

I also used chalk for all my markings on the kilt.  Chalk was a great option - works well on wool, can be brushed off (erased), and can be pressed without issues.  I did have to re-mark the kilt if I took too many days away from the project or moved it around (which I did often because we moved offices when I was making this kilt).

Pleats and Darts

The pleating and darting was a little tricky, but again, I just started with one step at a time in the instructions.  The waist and hip measurements were very similar for the kilt I made, so I made very tiny darts at the apron waists.  

You can see the tiny dart marked here - based on the measurements for the kilt

Looking at the top of the dart - you can see how small it is.  These darts were handsewn into place

I ended up doing dress pleating on this kilt, which meant I kept the tartan pattern with the pleats (you can see the tartan pattern even though the fabric is pleated).  I did not use the waistband/cut off piece to test or plan it.  I just started folding the tartan to see what I thought looked good and it worked very well.  One of the little "tricks" I felt I learned is that the pleats don't have to be exactly the same size all the way through.  As long as they are about the same size, and they match up to get the look you want, it is fine. 

My pleats were supposed to be .74" wide according to my calculations.  I had an even number of setts between the aprons so I took my number and subtracted 7 (36 setts - 7 = 29 pleats).  Then I took half of the hip measurement (for me was 21.5") and divided this by the number of pleats (29) -- so 21.5" / 29 pleats = .74".  So I went with approximately 3/4" wide pleats, but sometimes they would be narrower or wider by almost 1/4".  But it was not noticeable because of how the plaid pattern showed.

I had 2 sections of fabric to work the pleats on and I just put them together as if they were one, pinning them at the center back.  I worked the pleats so that this seam would fall in the back of one of the pleats and would lay flat.  This was easy to do because I also had several inches of fabric to work with since I was only considreing full setts as part of the pleat plan -- and there were not full setts left at each end of the fabric in the center back.

I will also note that my fabric had a few moth holes in it, but I was able to manipulate the pleats so that they were completely hidden in the garment.  Just a little extra bonus to making this kilt!

I also hand basted all the pleats in place instead of using pins as the illustrations show.  I think this was really helpful and if I needed to access inside the pleats, I could just snip the basting threads away.

Here you can see the kilt pleating is done with the under-apron on the right side and the over-apron on the left side.  I was able to work the center back seam into one of the back pleats.  

Again there was a very small difference between the hip and waist for the kilt I was trying to make, so I did not have to take in much at the waist on the pleats.  But, my feeling was that I would just adjust each pleat at the waist by about the same amount to take out the extra width to get down to the waist measurement.  This is a good place to measure your kilt to see if it is coming out the size you expect.  Mine was a little larger than the measurements I had, so I took in a little more at the waist than my calculations indicated I should, but that way it finished at the correct waist measurement I was using.  

Fell stitching the pleats at waist-to-hip on the kilt back.  Fell stitching is very easy and is basically an applique stitch.  It is flexible and mostly invisible, so works well for this application.

This shows how I took in a little fabric at the waist when I sewed the pleats from the hip line to the waist.  The tartan does not stay even when you do this.

Buttonhole (and finishing pleats)

I did not cut the excess fabric from each pleat in Step Four of the kilt.  By the time I got to this step, I was running out of time (and maybe patience?).  So I only cut out the extra fabric in the pleats past the buttonhole so I could open the buttonhole pleat up.  It wasn't totally clear to me that the pleat where the buttonhole goes has to be cut open.  The extra fabric is not cut away, but the pleat does have to be cut open to access the stitching that needs to be opened up to make the buttonhole.  And the pleats to the inside of this pleat were in the way of opening up for the buttonhole.  So I cut the extra fabric away.  But that was all I did.  I am sure by leaving all that fabric, I was leaving in quite a bit of bulk, but I just didn't feel like it was worth it for this project.  

You do cut through the pleat to get to the stitching to make the buttonhole for the belt tab.

Extra fabric in the pleats were cut away here just to the left of the buttonhole pleat.

Here you can see the pleat is open all the way and make bartacks above and below where the stitching will be taken out to make a buttonhole for the belt tab.

Interfacing and Lining

I used a medium-weight linen for the interfacing and a light weight white muslin for the lining in this part of the pattern.  These fabrics worked well and they were scraps that I had on hand.  I thought they did a great job, but I don't know if they are considered totally appropriate for the application they were used for.  They worked for me, but perhaps you would want to try something else. 

I also trimmed my belt loops down before I turned them right side out (which made them much easier to turn out).

The insides of the kilt with lining/facings finished. 

Waistband and Buckles

It was very hard to find buckles for the kilt.  There are a number of Scottish wear and kilt shops but very very few that have the kilt-making supplies.  I ordered them from Highland Xpress, but also saw them on Amazon (coming from Scotland).  Highland Xpress had exactly what I needed for this kilt.  I made my own buckle tab as instructed in the pattern, but didn't have it made (because the buckles had not yet arrived) when I took the photos of the kilt. 

For the waistband, I used the fabric I had left from first cutting the tartan for the kilt.  I could have tried to line up the band so that the vertical lines of the tartan matched, at least for the over-apron.  They won't match elsewhere on the kilt because of the pleating at the waist and probably won't match on the under-apron either. And that is because the pleats at the waist are manipulated to fit the waist and so take in some of the extra fabric.  

Also this is a good place to note that wool has some stretch to it.  You can manipulate it a bit when fitting the waistband (and lining) to get it to where you want it to be.

Back of the almost finished kilt 

Finishing

I also did not do the finishing technique that has the hem edge at the double sett pleat and corner of under-apron hemmed.

But I did do a LOT of pressing.  I pressed the pleats consistently throughout the kilt making process once I had them basted.  I pressed with steam from the front and back.  I did not place them under books or other heavy items, but that is not a bad idea and could help keep the pleats super sharp.

Finally . . .

I really did enjoy parts of making this kilt.  I liked designing the pleats and getting the kilt finished.  I loved working with the fabric -- wool is so nice to work with.  And I do like hand sewing and this was nearly all hand sewn.  It took quite a while to finish this kilt, but I am proud of it.  It is certainly not perfect, but it would look beautiful at the Highland Games on a summer day!

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