My wife generally makes her tartan skirts and dresses long, but though some have pleats they aren't really kilt-style pleats, which among other things would add an awful lot of weight to the...

You might consider putting it out in PDF form where you could send buyers the download information. I wrote a sailing book a while back which was published hard-cover, but I also have a PDF copy on...

I built a lot of plastic models when I was young, mostly WWII aircraft and early jet fighters. These days, it's just N-Scale trains running along the shelf tops in my office with two parallel tracks...

Try again.....

If the definition of "bespoke" includes stuff we made ourselves (mostly because we can and we're cheap) then my wife and I are included. My lovely kilts are made by Barb T. from...

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I saw this mentioned over on the WoodenBoat Forum and it's pretty impressive. This is part one of three.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nV4jNWZlmEU

That's going to be a cool table when finished! My current layout is also N Scale and runs along the shelf tops in my office/music room. As a result, in most places it's only about twelve inches wide...

That photo reminds me of the time I asked my wife if I could run the tracks through one of her kitchen cabinets.

At some point, I think you have to get real, and no amount of bold, capitalized or italic text changes that fact. The vast majority of those who make custom, one-off products are small businesses. I...

Mixing cloth cut square to the weave with cloth cut on a bias can be problematic at times, due to the rather drastic differences in stretch. It can eventually result in seams which are smooth and...

Getting ready to go to one of the local Highland games last year.

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I had a good-sized hunk of 15 oz. wool tweed which I bought from Marton Mills which had a similar, silvery/white thread running along next to the edge. After deciding that it was not practical to try...

One other option would be to measure with your chosen kiltmaker by Skype. For my first eight yard custom kilt my wife helped during a Skype video call with Barb Tewksbury. The resulting kilt fit...

I like the tweed. The sporran, however, does sort of look like somebody shot Bugs Bunny. I'm really liking the tweed kilt that Barb made for me. It has kind of a different vibe and feel than my...

We're pretty much wool people around here and the Marton Mills IOS tartan we ordered for my wife to make a dress from was our first experience with Polyviscose fabric. We were very pleasantly...

Not to mention the question of how much do you need to modify the specific yarn count of a tartan to come up with something which does not violate anybody's intellectual property rights, yet still...

I don't believe that to be true. For example, last year I bought my wife about five meters of IOS PV from Marton Mills to make a dress from and paid the additional royalty, a couple bucks more than...

What happens on IOS and some other "private" tartans is that it is fine to use them, but you will pay a royalty fee per meter of fabric that you buy from the weaver, which I assume is then forwarded...

Barb made my tweed kilt from a piece of 15 oz. wool tweed that I bought from Marton Mills. This one had a clean looking edge, but some sort of silver "guide" thread running along about 1" in from the...

Looking good! Designing them can certainly be habit forming. It can also get expensive when you start having them woven, but it's neat to have a hunk of custom cloth which is the only one like it in...

You can see the pleats a little better in this one. I suppose a box pleat would be easier to build in tweed, but as you can see here, an eight yard knife pleated construction works if done by the...

Yes, you can, but the MM tweeds are somewhat different from the wool kilting fabrics that they weave (16 oz. Jura and 12 oz. Bute). The tweeds are thicker, with a fuzzier, softer surface. They don't...

I have a black barathea jacket which I picked up at a good price, though I wasn't really thrilled with the chrome buttons. I toned it down by switching them for the black version of the...

I have an old Singer Featherweight like that one somewhere down in the basement. It's not particularly dependable. As far as I know all the old Featherweights have an oscillating lower hook system...

As far as high quality modern sewing machines go, our vote goes to Husqvarna Viking, though there are other good brands as well. Most of the items my wife sews are wool, tweeds or tartans along with...