Sewing Steps Blog

My boyfriend wanted to wear a kilt, as a joke, to a wedding between a Scottish man and an Australian lady early next month. He found that they were way too expensive to buy new or second hand, so I decided to make a makeshift kilt for him. I will explain step by step what I did to make it. We bought the materials needed for $22.40 at Spotlight (2 metres of tartan and 1 metre of velcro). Unfortunately, there was not any red tartan available, but green is still good. You can see the materials below.

Measure the tartan from waist to knees on the model, leaving enough room for a 1.5 inch hem. Cut the tartan to measure.

This part is a bit tricky, as it takes a bit of adjusting at times. What you need to do is to fit the front of the tartan around the front of the model and then pin it together. I found it best to pin it to some of the undergarments of my boyfriend to help hold it in place. The back of the material needs to be baggy to allow room for pleats to be made. Start pleating 1 inch pleats with pins and slowly do them around the back of the evolving kilt. You will need pin near the top and also about 7 inches down.  The picture below shows how the pins should be in place for these pleats.

Take the tartan material carefully off the model and then sew along the top of pleats, carefully taking the pins off as you go.

Then sew down the pleats to the next pin.

Use an over-locking machine to sew sides and bottom of the kilt to stop the material fraying. Sew half inch hems on the sides and 1.5 inch hems on the bottom.

Cut a 4 inch thick piece of material from the spare tartan (2 metre length). This will become the waistband.

Sew top of material of the waistband along the outer (part that you will see when wearing it) top side of the kilt as shown in the photo below.  Fold the waistband in half, so that you have a 1.5 inch waistband. Sew it along the inner side (part of kilt that will not be seen while wearing it) of the kilt material to seal the waistband. Tuck in ends of waistband neatly and then neatly sew them down.

Cut the velcro into 2 lots of 3 inch strips. Put kilt on model and put pins or chalk marks where the velcro will go on each side. Pin velcro pieces in place and then carefully sew them on.

Pleat bottom of kilt in place with pins, similar to what you did at the top. Pleat middle of the kilt too. This will hold the pleat in place while you press down on it quite firmly with an iron and a damp handkerchief. Take handkerchief off and press pleat again, taking out pins. This will keep you permanent pleat.

There you go. It is now all finished. You can now get the kilt owner to try it on. You will deserve that glass of wine too. Well done.

Note that you may wish to add a buckle to the front of the kilt and a large pin near the bottom to make it look more authentic.

Many of the clothes people buy these days do not fit the consumer well? How often are the legs too long or the crutch just a bit too tight?  What most people do is that they buy the clothes and then pay a reasonably hefty fee to get them altered at a shop.  They do this because they do not have the skills to do the sewing alterations themselves or because they just do not have the time.

So the demand is there to start a business in clothing alterations from home. It has the potential to work very well if you have the required space, equipment (such as a sewing machine, needles and thread), the time and sewing skills. So learn how to sew and go make some money. 

Sometimes when sewing by hand it can be difficult to get the needle to go through fabric. What you can do is rub the needle through your hair, close to the scalp, and then it should go through the fabric much easier. The natural lubricant in your hair certainly can help at times. Happy sewing.  

1. Buy about five yards of fabric, preferably linen cloth and a solid color.

2. Get out your best scissors and cut the material in the shape of a semi-circle.

3. Make an additional cut — about ¹₄” to ¹₃” — into the top center of semi-circle.

4. Go grab a sandwich.

5. If you’re into sewing, go ahead and hem the ends of the fabric. Although this step is optional, especially if you’re in a hurry.

6. Hold a section of the semi-circle to the waist on the right side of the body and use a safety pin to attach a corner to the fabric on the left side of the body.

7. Fabric should hang to the knees.

8. Toss the rest of the fabric over your left shoulder.

9. Fasten it with a safety pin or brooch.

10. Bring the loose end of the toga to the waist and tie it with a safety pin or tuck it in. If the fabric is too long you might need to wrap it around your body several times. Lucky you.

11. If you understood these directions, then you’ll have a nice toga for the party. Otherwise, just grab a sheet and wrap it around you as best you can. You might need a belt.

12. Underwear? Up to you.

Source: eHow.com