I keep reading about how *some* kiltmakers are out there to strip your pocketbook bare..HAHA!!!

I think it's time for my semi-quarterly review of "let's get real".

AKA..."Why Alan didn't become a profesional kiltmaker".

I can hand-make an eight-yard kilt...32 pleats in about 30-34 hours of work. I can seethat if I get really good at it and did a few of the seams (like in the waist band,for example) by machine, I could turn one out in about 24-28 hours. I can machine-sew a box-pleat kilt in about 15 hours.

OK, so what is a "reasonable" working hourly wage for a trained, professional kiltmaker? Five dollars an hour? Ten? Fifty? What does your plumber make? How about your electrician? How about your computer repair guy? When I do call-out computer repair, I charge $40 an hour. Is it unreasonable to suppose that, say, your trained kiltmaker could make $15 an hour? Is that SO unreasonable?

OK, then so if I got really fast and really good I could hand-make a kilt in about 28 hours of work. Let's say I get really good and it's 24 hours. 24 hours times $15/hour equals $360.

Three Hundred and Sixty Dollars....that's just the labor.

Now let's say that the cloth I'm working on retails for about $60 a yard. Now, we'll assume that since I'm "in thebusiness" I get a break on that price. Let'spretend that it's 50%. OK, so I'm paying $30 a yard for my cloth. I'm still buying 4 yards of cloth,though. That's $120

one hundred and twenty dollars

Then there are straps, buckles, hair canvas, lining, thread and the semi-annual maintenance call on my sewing machine. Let's say that's another $20 for the cost of each kilt.

twenty bucks

Add it up and what do you get? Five Hundred Dollars

THAT is what a primarily hand-sew, hand pleated, properly-done kilt made out of top-flight material should cost. The logic is simple, the costs are reasonable. NO KILT-MAKER IS RIPPING YOU OFF, HERE.

Now, mind you....let's think about thtat kiltmaker. Not only does that poor person haveto sew kilts,but he/she has tomaintain aweb site, because Oh-my-goodness, it's the internet age, get WITH it! And they have to bill for kilts made,receive material, BUY material, goto to the bank, order bucklesand straps, answer the phone, answer the e-mail etc. etc. etc. Of course none of that PAYS anything does it? The only timehe makes money is when he/she is actually sewing. If that kiltmaker can spend 30 hours a week actually SEWING, it'd be a miracle.

Have you everspent 30 hours a week sewing? I haven't, either. But I've spent 20 hours a week sewing and I got cranky and bored,fast.....But I digress.

OK, but let's say they do it. Let's say our kiltmaker actually spend 30 hours a week,sewing. Well, 30 hours a week times $15 an hour is $450.

Is our kiltmaker allowed to take two weeks of vacation a year? Seems reasonable to me. OK,so that measn they're working 50 weeks out of the year.

50 weeks times $450 a week equals $22,500 a year, annual income. Mind you, that doesn't include any benefits like health insurance, or a retirement plan.

Now, there are places in the USA where you can live on $22,500 a year, where that's a decent wage, even. But I have to tell you, it's not gonna cut it here in the the San Francisco Bay Area of California.

So much for our kiltmakers "ripping us off"....laughing all the way to the bank.