Length of material for a great kilt?

[jhockin]

For an additional opinion on the great kilt/ belted plaid:
http://www.westcoastkilts.com/kilt-h.../kilt-history/
Part of which includes this opinion:
"The old documents describe the ‘big kilt’ as being made of ‘six double ells of tartan material (a Scots ‘ell’ was 37” and ‘double’ means ‘twice the usual width’ rather than ‘twice the usual length; i.e. 54” rather than 27”). In addition, Colonel David Stewart of Garth (Sketches of the Highlanders of Scotland, Edinburgh 1822) very clearly indicated that the cloth was folded in half in order to double the thickness (for greater warmth) before it was worn.

The total useable length was therefore in the region of 3 yards, and if you deduct 4 feet for the aprons, there must have been hardly enough material for more than a few pleats across the back."

[Hondo]

Greetings to all,

I think, due to your grand writeup David, I finally understand how much tartan I need. Your wee pics have helped.

I am 188cm or 6'2", have a 32 inch waist. Everything I read stated only 'double width' and 6-8 meters or yards long. Buying from Lochcarron, where the tartan is 138cm or 54inches wide, I was in the constant mindset of having 6 yards double width, or 6yards by 108inches - hense the need to order 12 yards of material. So, I am only in need of 4 or 5 yards, depending upon how I choose to wear the kilt.

Am I correct in me thinking?

Cheers!

Single width material is about 27" to 30" wide. It isn't wide enough to make a great kilt out of without joining two pieces of single width fabric to make a "doublewidth" size (~54 to 60" wide).

Modern doublewidth material removes the need to sew two pieces together for a great kilt (feilidh mor).

So, in other words, you need a piece of tartan ~60" wide by about 3 yards long. If you were making that out of single-width material you would buy 6 yards and sew.




Also, just for clarity:

These are great kilts:



This is not a great kilt. This is made-up junk:

[lschwartz]

Greetings to all,

I think, due to your grand writeup David, I finally understand how much tartan I need. Your wee pics have helped.

I am 188cm or 6'2", have a 32 inch waist. Everything I read stated only 'double width' and 6-8 meters or yards long. Buying from Lochcarron, where the tartan is 138cm or 54inches wide, I was in the constant mindset of having 6 yards double width, or 6yards by 108inches - hense the need to order 12 yards of material. So, I am only in need of 4 or 5 yards, depending upon how I choose to wear the kilt.

Am I correct in me thinking?

Cheers!

Hondo,

Since you are six feet tall you may want to order six yards of material instead of just 4 or 5. If it it too long you can always cut it off and maybe make a vest or something with it. But, if you only get 4 or 5 feet you might not have enough to wear it up over your shoulders as a cape/cloak, which is one of the nice things you can do with a great kilt in cold or nasty weather.

Larry

[figheadair]

Like Steve alluded to above, historically there is a whole lot of evidence that in the military, soliders were issued single width plaiding which was butted together to make something akin to todays double width tartan cloth. When the 77th Regiment of Foot was raised for service here in North America each solider received 12 yards of plaiding every 2 years. My feeling, and only a feeling, I cant document it, is that they were making either 1 great kilt out of 6 yards, and one kilt out of the other 6 yards.

Luke, got to disagree here, a least as far as the early Highland Regiments were concerned. Loudoun's 64th for example were issued 12 yds to make a plaid, no mention of them ever wearing a feileadh beag and even if they did, it was more likely to have been made from an old plaid and to have contained 3-4 yds not 6.

[jthk]

For reference, I'm 5 ft 9 in tall at 165 lb and all of my belted plaids are 4 yards long, double-width. I have several from Lochcarron and I find it works very well for me, at about 54 in wide. I did have a 4.5 yard-long belted plaid that I cut down to 4 yards because even at 4.5 yards, it was simply too much stuff behind me.

As someone suggested, you can always cut it down if it's too much stuff. But as others have said, historically, 3-4 yards would've been common.

Best,
Jonathan

Greetings to all,

I think, due to your grand writeup David, I finally understand how much tartan I need. Your wee pics have helped.

I am 188cm or 6'2", have a 32 inch waist. Everything I read stated only 'double width' and 6-8 meters or yards long. Buying from Lochcarron, where the tartan is 138cm or 54inches wide, I was in the constant mindset of having 6 yards double width, or 6yards by 108inches - hense the need to order 12 yards of material. So, I am only in need of 4 or 5 yards, depending upon how I choose to wear the kilt.

Am I correct in me thinking?

Cheers!

[jhockin]

Re: fabric doubled: some have referenced the painting of the Laird. of Grant's piper (1732), to support the idea that ( at least some people, maybe only those that could afford to, or perhaps only those who could afford to, in colder times of the year?) wore a doubled length of fabric, for the great kilt. If you look closely, one can clearly see two layers, on the sides.

image.jpg

[Damion]

Re: fabric doubled: some have referenced the painting of the Laird. of Grant's piper (1732), to support the idea that ( at least some people, maybe only those that could afford to, or perhaps only those who could afford to, in colder times of the year?) wore a doubled length of fabric, for the great kilt. If you look closely, one can clearly see two layers, on the sides.

There's some quote about highlanders wearing plaids folded in two but whether that means this or is referring to how the upper half was sometimes allowed to fall down like a long skirt is unsure. It would certainly make the plaid easier to put on if you only had to deal with half the length.

This portrait possibly shows a plaid folded in two too: https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/s...jpg?1383133246

[javankrona]

Single width material is about 27" to 30" wide. It isn't wide enough to make a great kilt out of without joining two pieces of single width fabric to make a "doublewidth" size (~54 to 60" wide).

Modern doublewidth material removes the need to sew two pieces together for a great kilt (feilidh mor).




Also, just for clarity:

These are great kilts:

In this video demonstration, the Scotsman appears to be using a goodly bit of length. He appears to be using at least 6 yards of length; perhaps 8. A trained eye might say better.

https://youtu.be/CglGKvutjjo

And another demo with a bit more explanation along with.

https://youtu.be/vEmES4-7kvc

[jhockin]

There's some quote about highlanders wearing plaids folded in two but whether that means this or is referring to how the upper half was sometimes allowed to fall down like a long skirt is unsure. It would certainly make the plaid easier to put on if you only had to deal with half the length.

This portrait possibly shows a plaid folded in two too: https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/s...jpg?1383133246

I agree that in both paintings, we can see two layers, only on the upper ( above the belt) portion, but, I also believe that (at least for the piper's portrait) this was before the small kilt, so it would make sense that the portion below the belt would also have been doubled. ..we can only speculate ; but, it would certainly make for a warmer garment.

[Hondo]

Gentlemen,

I am deeply grateful for all the advise. I have a strong feeling of how to proceed and know the end result will be grand.

Cheers!

Hondo