A Kilt for SqueekMoo

Today I began work on a kilt for SqueekMoo. I have been meaning to make him a kilt for quite some time, on the grounds that he is of Scottish decent. Hence the Mac part of our name.

I wrote a term paper on kilts , so to make use of my bit of knowledge I'll share some terminology. Tartan refers to the crisscross pattern of horizontal and vertical lines. To some this is known as plaid. In Scotland the original definition of plaid is blanket. The word kilt was originally a verb meaning to draw up around oneself. So a kilted tartan plain was a crisscrossed patterned blanket pulled around oneself. Confused? Good because I was when I was doing the research since everyone likes to interchange the words.

Now the biggest reason why I put off making Squeekmoo a kilt is that clan tartan is just so terribly expensive. A yard alone can easily go for more than a hundred dollars, since it is generally custom woven wool. I have run across 100% cotton tartan for about thirty dollars a yard. But toss in the fact the little guy is always growing, it's rather costly.

What sparked today's' endeavors? This weekend the local park is having a civil war enactment. MacMac has to work this weekend so it's just me and the little dude. I've decided that we are going and I’m dressing him up. I have the perfect little coat planned out in my head. And I decided that a matching kilt would look dashing.

Being that I have but two days to pull this off, I fully expect it wont get done in time. But I shall try my best.

I had it all planed out on how I was going to make his little kilt be adjustable so my efforts wont get outgrown as fast as a non-adjustable one. A generous hem will be necessary to accommodate change in height. Velcro in the front since buttons, hook and eyes, or snaps would limit horizontal growth. And buttonhole elastic in the back, though pleated I think to gather it up some while he is small will give the kilt a few more months of use than making the pleats fit his hind side perfectly now.

However after going to three different craft supply stores today, I learned that buttonhole elastic is no long sold in brick and mortar stores. One of my favorite on-line supplies stocks it, but I wouldn't be able to get it in time. So back to the drawing board.

The fabric is from my stock pile. Long ago, when I first got into sewing, I kid myself into think I could make a civil war gown. I didn't get further than assembling the materials since I realized just how in over my head I was. I had picked out a solid blue cotton for the gown, but for the lining I decided to have some fun and went with a tartan. The blue in the tartan matched the blue of the cotton so it was perfect. Now I'm using the tartan was the main fabric and the blue cotton as my lining.

The fabric went through the wash this morning. Once SqueekMoo was put to bed I went to work on pleating.

I cut a piece of fabric twenty five inches by width. The twenty five inches provided plenty of length. The width was a bit problematic. The back side of a kilt is normally pleated one of two ways. Pleat to line means that you pleat on the same line of every repeat. I personally prefer pleat to sett however it’s a newer notion and requires a great deal more fabric.

I tried pleating to sett first, but came up four inches short of what I wanted the finished pleated width to be. I played with various pleating to line. I think I tried four variations before I settles with the pleats I ended up with. One of the things I don't like about pleating to line is that a single color can dominate the pleats. I didn't want it to end up all black nor did I want it to end up all blue. The end result is the repeat is about 1 inch wide. Half an inch of the repeat is shown, the last half inch is tucked in a fold. I did the repeat so it starts halfway through the blue and ends halfway though the black, so I have half sized stripes of black and blue. See the picture below I'm sure it says more than I can describe.

All in all the pleating took about an hour. Tomorrow shall start off with ironing and we'll see how far we get.