That Old Mystery Kilt Jones

[NancyMan]

THE KILT HAS ARRIVED

Can you believe it? It was posted on monday and arrived today (friday)- 4 days shipping from England!! (I'm still waiting on my STW from Norbydog and its been about two weeks now- likely not his fault. It took 8 days for an "expedited" parcel to arrive from Toronto.)

As described by the Ebay seller, it is indeed a hand sewn, wool, 4 yarder in pristine condition. It is selvedged rather than hemmed as the seller claims and there are the traditional 3, rather than two straps. There are no tags. It has to be 13 oz. wool as it weighs only a little over 1 1/2 pounds. The tartan is most likely ancient Gunn, though it is missing the light blue stripe running through the blue blocks. (Thanks Sherry, Hamish and Graham for your input.)

It fits me like a glove at the smallest setting. (I'm beginning to think that I'm really a 30 inch waist, even though all my contemporary kilts are 32 inch.) I guess I will have to shorten it 3 or 4 inches, since it comes to the very bottom of my knee. Rather than take it to a tailor and pay $35, I'm thinking of simply running my sewing machine around the bottom at the correct length, trimming the material off half an inch below that and then pulling out all the horizontal threads to fringe the bottom a la Bear. The pleats (21 in total) are pretty shallow- 2 1/2 inch with a 1 inch reveal as compared to my STW heavyweight which has 3 1/2 inch pleats with a 1 inch reveal and my tank (see the "now the story can be told" thread) which has 6 inch pleats with a 1 inch reveal. It is knife pleated to the sett. Light as it is, it rivals my acrylic STW heavyweight for warmth.

All told, I'm pretty darn pleased with this purchase which ran me $91.17 CAN according to my latest Visa bill. As long as I'm going to wear it, I guess I'll have to study up on the Gunn clan. Peace or war is their motto. Hmmm...seems to be no middle ground with them.

11 kilts, 7 months kilted and counting,
Vincent