Long Johns Under a Kilt

[Livingston]

Was out yesterday in upper 20's, lower 30's. Just had heavy kilt hose, a 13oz tank, denim shirt and light leather jacket. Was fine, just not as warm as the summer 8)

[MacConnachie]

Here's something to consider now that winter is near. Wearing pants constantly rubs a lot of the hair off your legs.Whereas a kilt allows that hair to grow to it's full potential and provide much needed insulation in cold weather.

Southern Breeze, your namesake wind is a blessing around this part of the country (SW Montana) in the wintertime, particularly when we've had a week or more of sub-zero(F) temps. Can't imagine trying to do anything outside under such conditions -- no idea how the old-timers walked sentry duty or anything like that. I guess they had warming fires somewhere not too far distant.

My biggest problem in colder-to-coldest weather in a kilt is not "the lads" as those areas are well-up under the aprons, and there is the "mitten effect" as others have discussed. Of course, those considerations go right out the window when there's "a piercin' wintry breeze blowin' up between my knees." It is the knees (are the knees?) that are my biggest problems. Even when I bring the selvedge of the kilt to mid-knee or cheat it a bit lower, the relative lack of soft tissue there (and resultant lack of warming via the bloodflow) results in knees that just won't warm up, even when one gets back inside a structure with heating. This past Sunday night was an example. I was plenty warm from mid-thigh northward, and ok from hosetops to toes, but my knees were very cold as a result of about 5 minutes of exposure to -8 deg. F. temps, coupled with a slight breeze out of the north. Not something I'd have wanted to do for too long a time, whether in a 4-yard 13 oz. or a tank. My old football-injury impaired circulation right knee was complaining particularly about the treatment it was given . . .

Long johns, even in the more color-coded body-stocking type of garment, I think, are probably out for the majority of kilt-wearers. I wouldn't mind being able to find a pair of tartan trews in just about anything that would fit me (39 inch waist, with 32-33 inseam) for those sorts of situations. I have seen someone wear tartan tights (Black Stewart sett, in ensemble with a skirt) that she located in shop in Scotland, but she was a musician on tour there, and there's a lot more latitude given to such folk by the fashion police, I think.

Mac

[Southern Breeze]

Your not alone,cold knees are a problem I have too. If it were as cold here as it is there, I personaly would hold off on wearing a kilt.

[Sherry]

These might help:

http://www.thermacare.com/kneewraps.jsp or
http://www.dynamic-living.com/knee-wrap.htm or
http://www.200.com/ (scroll down to see pic)

And there are plenty of others, you just have to Google "knee wrap." For those that have a wee hole over the cap, you could just tuck in a bit of tartan to match your kilt. ;-)

[JayFilomena]

Anyhow, have been wearing my UK Workman’s for my days volunteering that has thus far worked out great. Now that the days are getting colder here in the North-East I am wondering if it was time to switch to jeans for the winter ... then I thought "Why not long Johns under the UK?"
"

Physically, the body shunts blood away from the extremities to provide warmth for the more vital organs, heart, lungs, kidneys, etc....If you were to wear a thermal underwear shirt, along with proper layering, the torso would remain warm, and less shunting would occur, and theorhetically legs would be warmer. I wore my utilikilt hiking throughout the Highlands last January, with a t-shirt, long sleeved shirt, flight gloves and a warm gortex jacket, and remained warm despite remaining Braveheart below. Not to mention, I would rather have frost bite on the jewles before I wore anything resembling stockings under my kilt.

[cessna152towser]

Cavscout wrote:-
[QUOTE]My biggest problem (for me personally, not for others) with wearing anything under the kilt is that it will ride down and you wight end up having to hike it up every five minutes. Or you have to pull whatever your wearing up so high to get it under your belt that you have a wedgie issue.
[QUOTE]
I found I solved the problem of underpants slipping down by wearing a longish teeshirt on the top half and having the underpants elastic grip round the outside of the teeshirt which gives a much more firm grip. Returning to topic, I'd say long johns with a kilt wouldn't look right (even though King George IV allegedly wore them when royalty restarted wearing the kilt). A kilt looks good with knee socks and by all means wear something under it but what's worn under should not hang below the kilt selvedge.

[Hamish]

.................................................. .................................................. .................... A kilt looks good with knee socks and by all means wear something under it but what's worn under should not hang below the kilt selvedge.

Well said, that man!

[Big Dave]

A couple of pics of Utilikilts with longjohns.
[img]http://www.utilikilts.com/calendarpix/longjohnnov.jpg[/img]


And remember, too each their own.

[GlassMan]

Hmm, that actually looks like you're just wearing super long socks.

[NancyMan]

OK, I know I am guilty of an earlier, rather tongue in cheek post on this thread regarding the wearing of hockey socks. As the winter here has been rather mild, the hockey gear languishes in a drawer. I have, however been busy making kilt liners out of second hand um, ah, skirts. (Well what's the darn difference? They reside under my kilt and never get seen.) My latest and greatest creation I spotted at a thrift store for less than $6. It actually looked like a pair of long johns in skirt form- you know, grey and ribbed and thick and cosy and stretchy. What's it made of? 90 per cent wool. That's right, 70/lambswool, 10/cashmere, 10/angora and 10/nylon. And its hand washable. I snapped it up, took it home and in less than 30 minutes had chopped it down to 21 inches and hemmed it on my sewing machine. Its got a loosely elasticized waist and can be raised or lowered to suit the length of the kilt I'm wearing it under. I adjust it to hang about 2 inches short of my kilt's lower hem. Being strapped under the waist of my kilt, it neither rides up nor "slips" down and remains undetectable no matter what I do- stand, sit, walk or boogie. Not only does this kilt liner allow me to wear my summer weight kilts in winter- but it makes those kilts made out of less comfy fabric a dream to wear.

Get lined, ye lads 'n lassies ;)
Vincent