The kiltmaker and the kilt - Bonnie Heather Greene

[Connaughton]

Gentleman,

I thought that I would share my recent Roscommon kilt, the kiltmaker is Bonnie Heather Greene. Also included are some notes as to the process.

First I should commend Bonnie for her patience with my back and forth on the merits of this stripe vs. that reveal in the pleats vs. every and any other variable that I could think of. As has been noted by others in the past, Bonnie is an absolute pleasure to work with. And her work speaks for itself. If I do up another, I need and will look no further. Bonnie, you’ve been warned. I’ve already suggested to others locally to consider Bonnie for possible kilts. I now do so on this message board.

I met Bonnie through a mutual friend. We had a nice chat and months later I came to her to start this process. I was reasonably sure that this kilt would be County Roscommon-House of Edgar (HoE). I’d seen the the Irish County tartans and liked the autumnal quality to them. As my family comes from Ireland and I take after the line from Roscommon that seemed the natural choice.

Before I commited I wanted to be able to touch and hold and think about this a bit and asked Bonnie to gathered the swatch. As we waited we discussed the pleat to stripe based on the digital swath online. Bonnie next sent me the below with the basic stitching, outlining in white what she saw as the three options of pleat to stripe (I’ve added the graphics to highlight what might not be so legible).


Professionally I work as a graphic designer, getting the story to look right is very important to me. So I scanned the swatch and created this next photo so we could get a better sense of what this could look like. It’s a bit rough but this was about 5 minutes of work all told, but now we had something to discuss to pros and cons.


I like how very different the pleats were from each other and from the sett. Here I admit to being a pleat to stripe kind of guy. What is not shown is the under-pleat and with some there is a bit of contrast (medium/light to dark). After not to much dithering on my part I was able to omit option #3. After much dithering, and in the end I went with the high contrast of #1. But I rather liked #2. Just did not feel that it would read at any distance, it almost seems like Pleat to No-Stripe or Horizontal stripe to me.

As my first kilt is a good fit we duplicated those measurements. When I went to pickup that kilt the belts needed to moved. In an effort to relay this information to Bonnie in a manner that would actually be of use and impart detail I did a couple of shots with a tailors tape to identify the locations for Bonnie. This seemed to actually be helpful to her in that she could confirm her math and see what I was trying to relay to her. I suspect that written information might be just as helpful. I like the exactness of the photo’s and this way nothing gets lost in translation. This tartan is Murray of Tulibardine Ancient and Muted-HoE. My last name is Murray but that is just as likely to be an anglicised Irish name as a Scottish name. But with Celtic migration who knows.


So, I got the Roscommon kilt just before the turn of the year and have only just gotten to wear it out to a Tartan Day on Ellis Island. I admit to being very pleased with this kilt. I am quite happy with Bonnie’s work and I recommend her highly.
Here Bonnie and myself.


Safe traveling

Connaughton

[denmcdough]

Yes, Bonnie is a wonderful kilt maker...easy to work with, and very skilled. I, too, have one of her creations. It's a 16 oz. Robertson Red Modern, with Marton Mills material. Needless to say, I'm more than satisfied! Go Bonnie!!!

[McClef]

Moving this thread to Bonnie's sub forum.

[tulloch]

This is a great example of how different a tartan can look pleated in different ways. Interesting, informative and - in a way - (to me at least) - seductive.

[Spartan Tartan]

Bonnie does wonderful work. Unfortunately I do not have a good photo at hand, but my kilt made by Bonnie is a treasure.

Great desription of the process.

[xman]

I love to see and hear of a well made kilt. Enjoy!

[opositive]

the kilt, you and bonnie look great.

thank you for this thread. i am saving up for my first custom wool kilt for probably christmas time. roscommon and cavan county are on the short list for tartans. your pic above is the first pic i have seen of a roscommon kilt. wow.