I've been having very nice results (not on a kilt but with plenty of other projects) with a vintage Kenmore (from the mid 70's. Very heavy as well as heavy duty machines. (The numbers begin with 117 or 158, among others)

Ebay sometimes has good deals on these. Mine is all metal, no plastic, and heavy duty.

My other machine is a portable Kenmore (less than 10 years old) - it's plastic and not as heavy duty.