Yardage and weight of a kilt?

[Crazy Dave]

When you hold the material in your hand, you will definitely notice the difference between light, medium, and heavy weight tartan.

Consider the climate where you live. The more hot and humid the climate, the more I would suggest looking at lighter weight fabrics. The colder the climate, the more you'll want a heavier material wrapped around your body. Living in Florida and now South China, my lightweight kilt is wonderfully cool and practical. When I lived in Beijing, a heavier fabric was very welcome.

The general public will not notice the difference between a 5 or 8 yard kilt. But I can say that the way my 8-yard kilt hangs is far superior to my 5-yard one. The additional fabric and deeper pleats make for more swing and a more refined look overall. But the 5-yarder still looks very nice and I always get compliments on my kilt, no matter which one I am wearing.

Happy kilting!

Andrew

It seem pretty heavy. It keep trying to slip out of my USA Kilts hanger. It is definitely heaver than the USA Kilts Casual Kilt that it displaced from the hanger.

The kilt is already in my possession. In an earlier post i had some pictures. I was trying to find out what tartan it was. It turned out to be MacDougall. Very attractive IMO. I live in Maryland and it gets cold here, so no problem with a heavy kilt. I've been to Beijing twice, but it was summer and very hot!

The general public definitely doesn't notice around here, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist. Sound like you are too!

Thanks for the reply and Happy kilting to you too!

Dave

[Pleater]

I noticed someone puzzled that an 8 yard kilt might not measure 8 yards.

This is because, if the fabric happens to be cut at just the wrong spot in the pattern repeat, when the double width of material is cut and the maker sees how the measurements will fit into it, the element of the set which is to be the front centreline, occurs almost a full set to the left of where it might have been if more fortunately placed. The piece of fabric might be cut exactly 4 yards long, it just can't all be used.

The excess at the right edge of the apron can be used to make a full multilayer fringe, but it is effectively lost fabric.

Then the pleats are put in, and the join is made, making the join as invisibly as possible might again fall in an unfortunate place and fabric is lost again, but the maker is not 'short changing' the customer - it is just that when you are working with a patterned fabric such losses are all part of the process of getting a perfect line-up.

Anne the Pleater.

[Crazy Dave]

Hi Anne,

I understand what you are saying. To make the set line up at the apron there may be some loss, so the 8 yard is an approximation. It will probably be less when measured. More sound advice. Thank you!

My mother sewed and tried to teach me. I understand about pattern matching, even if my skill at doing so is non existent. The alignment of the set looks very good to me, although I expect you could spot errors that I would be oblivious to.

Dave

[Steve Ashton]

Yea, calling a kilt an 8 yard kilt refers to how it is made more than the actual amount of fabric. The cut-off is about hips of 42-44 inches in circumference.
For hips less than 45" the makers starts with 4 yards of double-width fabric. The finished kilt will usually need less than the full amount.

But if the hips are greater than 45" the kilt can need 8.5 yards or 9.0 yards or sometimes even more.

My own personal kilts are made for my 42 inch hips but use 8.62 yards of fabric when finished which means I start with 4.5 yards of double-width fabric,

[Tomo]

3) In general- the heavier the fabric - the larger the pattern will be in the woven fabric

Cheers Steve, you may have solved a little puzzle for me.

I have 4 kilts all in different versions of MacFarlane tartan. Two of which I am sure are Lochcarron and one which (from memory) I think is, the other I have no idea about. However, amongst the 4 there are three different sizes of set - not by much (and not as great a difference as the example you posted) but noticeably so.

From the handle of the cloth, I have always felt that the one with the smallest set is a lightweight tartan (say 11oz). This is the one I have no idea about the mill. My original kilt, which (as far as i can recall - it's over 20 years) is a mediumweight (13oz) Lochcarron tartan is identical to one of the kilts which is certainly from Lochcarron. The puzzle, however, is over my latest addition which has a larger set. I bought it readymade and the maker had confirmed it was Lochcarron cloth - but the set is bigger than my other two and a sample I had ordered. I am now given to understand this is perhaps heavyweight (16oz) cloth.

[SF Jeff]

When you hold the material in your hand, you will definitely notice the difference between light, medium, and heavy weight tartan. I have a kilt made of 11 oz fabric and one of 13 oz. It is surprising how much heavier the 13 oz feels than the 11 oz. I'm sure 16 or 18 oz material would be just as noticeably heavier than the 13 oz.

It wasn't until I bought my second and third kilts (both 13oz wool from Lochcarron) that I realized my first kilt (purchased new but not bespoke for me) is probably an 11 ouncer. The difference in the fabrics is very noticeable. That being said, the fabric on the 11 oz. is very nice, on par with the Lochcarron wool or even nicer. Hangs well, swings well, pleats have held up well. (The maker of that kilt uses Lochcarron and HoE, so could be either one.)

[Crazy Dave]

Thanks all again! I was able to determine, with all of you help and some additional research, that what I have in fact is a Claymore MacDougall, 8 yard, pleat to set kilt. I also did some additional research, and the pleat to set is also different on a 4 and an 8 yard kilt. This one looks more like an 8 yard, but the preverbal nail in the coffin was that Claymore uses 3 straps on the 8 yard and 2 straps on their 4 yard. They also have a 4 yard top stitch, and this is definitely not a top stitch like my acrylic kilts are. I think it is 13 oz. but I will have to wait until I can compare 11 and 13 oz. fabric side by side.

I also have a wool Royal Stewart kilt that I bought at auction that also appears to be an 8 yard. There is no manufacturer but it appears to be really old. It came with a matching pipers plaid (w/ waist belt). One of the more interesting things about it, while not being and ancient or weathered tartan, it is faded on the outside but not the inside, like it was actually weathered, no made to look weather. I will take pictures and make a separate post.

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[Pleater]

Something which can mean that there is less material than a full 8 yards is the set and the placing of it on the kilt - the seller will have unrolled the bolt of cloth, and hopefully will have cut across in a neat straight line. if not, a bit of the cloth might be lost in making a straight join in the two parts when the fabric is divided.

Before that, though, the front apron needs consideration. the brief might be to have - for instance, two red lines equidistant on the centre front, so that might mean losing a bit from the right edge of the apron.

The usual rule is that the centre back and centre front match, but having made a rough approximation of the pleating with the first piece of the fabric it could be that there is another mis match at the joining - perhaps the join would fall on a visible part of the pleats, so a bit more fabric is lost to move the join out of sight, and possibly a bit more so that the two stripes are in proper alignment. The pleats can then, usually continue around to the under apron without further problem.
One thing which could have taken a little fabric from the length is if the tartan is not woven square and the wearer would particularly like to have an accurate match on the waist binding, or the kilt needs to be particularly long. Rather than being able to take a piece from the centre of the fabric, it is taken from an end.
Running a tape measure along the lower edge might well show that the full amount of fabric bought has not ended up in the pleats or aprons, but it is just down to how the sett fell on the fabric.