If yer gonna learn to make kilts...do yourself a big favor and start cheap...make a few out of commo.ly available material from the local shops...jumping off into a project you habe no experience with with high dollar material is a recipe for failure...also..I would not necessarily recommend starting with tartan...make a couple kilts from whatever cloth tickles your fancy...pv tweed is a good start as is some heavier cotton tweeds....getting well made pleats and nice straight well constructed fells takes a bit, and having to worry at getting a pleat to sett or stripe right in one go...well...probably not. Also, in addition to buying TAOK..download the box pleat kilt addenum to go with the book....box pleats are soooo much easier to learn...at least they were for me.