Royal Stewart 5-yard kilt for cousin, a blow-by-blow

[Alan H]

I'll do pictures for the next kilt, but I thought I'd do a blow-by-blow accounting of how long it takes me to do every step in making a lightweight kilt. Perhaps this will be useful for others.

The plan is to make a nice tartan kilt in a Universal tartan, for a relative who seems "interested" in kilt, but is probably leery of taking the plunge. He tried on a Utilikilt and actually smiled and enjoyed it. His buddy is a Cunningham and seemed pretty keen on getting a Cunningham kilt. He seems pretty interested in the Scottish-American Military Society, since he's ex Navy Reserve. I don't want to spend too much $$ on this, or TOO much time because he may not actually go for it, but I'd like to turn out something that looks reasonably traditional for him. He said he'd be more likely to wear a "Scottish" kilt than a "Contemporary kilt". He's my cousin, and so could wear either the Hall or MacNaughton tartans by "genetic connection" but fat chance I can find either of those for a few bucks a yard. Perhaps if he takes to this kilt-wearing stuff, I'll be making another one for him sometime in the future.

I recently made a young friend a knockaround four-yard kilt in a very lightweight Polyester Viscose, and while I think that will work just fine for him, especially on a hot day, I can't see my cousin wearing either that material or that tartan. So I searched around on ebay. Two weeks of watching scored me item number 380080748368, at $23 including shipping.... which turned out to be just two inches shy of 2.5 yards of an 11 ounce worsted wool tartan in what sure looks like Royal Stewart. There's an extra "bit" off one end which is about 18 inches square that will do for flashes, loops, and buckles. It does not have a kilting selvedge and needs to be hemmed, but it's actually pretty darned nice stuff. It will make a very nice 5 yard kilt. I will pleat it to sett, and hand-sew the pleats since I need practice for the next two kilts, which are for **ME**. YAY! The waistband will be machine-sewn as will the edge of the over-apron/fringe, but I know how to machine-sew that and hide the stitching, so when this is done it will LOOK like a completely hand-sewn, 5-yard kilt.

With that as the starting point, I'll forge on. Hang with me if you like, as I prepare a Christmas present for my cousin. I will go to pains to get pics of the thing on him, at the end. I'm egging his sister, also my cousin, to get him one of the budget Stillwater Kilts sporrans for Christmas, so with that and some Hamilton Dry Goods socks, he'll be all set to go kilted to Christmas Dinner.