Where do you buy Tartan material?

[Barb T]

But starting with good quality wool tartan cloth woven for kilt making will make your experience so much better - and make it that much easier for you to make a decent looking kilt. I agree with everything Paul wrote about it being easier to work with.

And I agree totally with both Matt and Paul Henry, and I'll add another reason. A kilt is a lot of work (especially your first one), and to put that much time into a garment that you wouldn't wear because it isn't good enough seems like a wasted effort to me. Much better to use good fabric for all the reasons that Matt and Paul Henry suggest, the most compelling of which, for a beginner, is that it is actually _easier_ to do a good job. So, get good fabric, work carefully, and re-do something that isn't right, rather than bashing on and spending a lot of time on what has been fondly termed a "50-yard kilt" (i.e., one that looks good only from 50 yards away....). With the exception of cutting out the pleats, there's nothing that can't be re-done if you've made a botch of it. Just take out the stitching, and try again. You'll have a product in good fabric that you're proud to wear.