The OUTRAGEOUS Price of kilts!

**Alan H** · 6th June 07, 08:36 AM

Yeah!

What Steve said!

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For the guys who swear that they can't make a kilt..... OK, OK, then. You can't make a kilt.

For those that are willing to try, I recommend Barb's and Elsie's book (like has been recommended five hundred times before on this forum) and if you want something even easier to cut your teeth on, then try my X-Kilt instructions. Note that to do the X-Kilt, you will need to know how to operate a sewing machine. This can be accomplished by finding someone who knows how to run a sewing machine, inviting them over to your home for beer and pizza and producing the sewing machine in question. Slap down some scrap fabric and learn how to thread the machine, change stitches, hold the material and help guide it through the machine, wind a bobbin, and adjust the thread tension. It should take about an hour and a half, maybe two hours.

But hey, if you can't do that for whatever reason....and maybe you have one or more really good reasons, like A.) simply not having the space to store the machine, or B.) you can't afford the $50 it cost me to buy a used, perfectly workable sewing machine on ebay, and ship it to my house, or C.) you have bad arthritis in your hands, or D.) you have absolutely no patience for manual crafts, whatsoever.... OK. It's entirely your call.

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Now, back to the price of kilts......A QUESTION.

Does anyone on the forum know of a USA or Canada or UK or Australia-based woolen mill that has NEW equipment? Mind you, I don't mean a place that produces yarn, but some place that produces actual wool cloth.

**Nerts** · 6th June 07, 09:41 AM

I bought a UK back in March and it cost me about $200 CDN. That's pretty low compared to some of the other kilts I've seen around since then, but I can't afford to do that very often. One a year sounds right but how many of you can do only one kilt a year?

I saw Alan's X-Kilt manual and decided that that was what I was gonna do! I've never touched a sewing machine before and wasn't really looking forward to learning. But I am. To learn how to sew I'm running a strip back and forth, using different stiches and spacing just so I can get a feel of how it goes. So far so good and I've found that I like it! It's like a weird form of therapy/meditation.

I never questioned how much a kilt cost because I know they are priced that way for a reason. The hardest thing to put a price on is your time, and I would never complain about what someone thought their time was worth!

I can't afford to buy kilts on a regular basis and so my solution to that is to make my own. That way I know what I'm getting and that the quality is good and (as steve said) I'm "producing the highest quality I am capable of".

The best part is I will accept my payment in beer!

E.

**Kilted-Marine** · 6th June 07, 10:05 AM

A hand made kilt produced by a skilled maker is worth every penny. When I got maried, I purchased 4 Kilts, 4 Belts, 4 Sporrans, 4 sets of hose, 4 kilt pins, and 4 pair of Ghillie shoes. I bought these from Alexis Malcolm, who got the fabric directly from Scotland and hand made the kilts herself. At the time I was living in Ft Lauderdale and actually drove down to her house and picked everything up. I got to see where she did her work and had a pleasant time with her and her husband.

Never did I think she over charged me. although I did grimace a little when I had to hand over the money.

To those out there sewing by hand for yourself or other people, I say bravo..you are doing a wonderful job. Heck I would like to partner up with a good company like that and offer the products.

And yes, Everybody should have at least one good hand made wool kilt. But they should also have 6 good quality "Frugal Kilts" and you won't have to save your change as long to get one.

On another note - We try to make sure we are honest and ethical in all our dealings. We legally have set up business as an LLC, we have a Minnesota Tax ID, and a Federal Tax ID. (and every 2nd or 3rd time we import stuff customs holds an order and asks for the Federal ID)

I have actually seen an ebay listing where I was sure that the person had bought from us and were reselling it with different and out right wrong labeling. what can you do...

And we have had to said sorry a few times and also have sucked up a few bad deals.
1. At one point we were using some pictures on our site that we later found out were from locharron (they were of ladies dresses) heck there are 1000's of sites using them. But somebody sent an email to locharron and we got an email from locharron asking us to remove the pictures. we remove them within 45 minutes. (I later found out those pictures were taken in the 1970's)
2. We order a bunch of kilt hose- they came in and looked like thin soccer socks. OK for giving away or as an emergency pair but not good enough for us to sell. we have been slowing giving them away.
3. We ordered about 80 16 oz kilts from a new vendor as a trial. They were not 16 oz..we can sell them as a medium weight or a light weight but not a 16 oz.
4. We ordered a bunch from another company -100 kilts and other stuff - we received 1 kilt... yep 1 kilt

**RK-REX** · 6th June 07, 10:59 AM

In line with the first post by Alan.

When I first decided to wear a kilt, I looked...and looked...and looked. I educated myself a bit and the purchased what I could afford. USAK Casual BTW. After all, who would spend hundreds of dollars to try something they may not like. That would be like buying a side of beef to see if you like steak.

In my research, I realized that like anything that is made by hand as well as mass produced there are going to be huge cost variances. So you figure your budget, or how long you're willing to jones by saving your pocket change. Then purchase what you can afford, or wait to build your funds.

So then I decide I'm going to learn to make kilts. Being the person I am, I decided to research as much as I could, then start small if you will. I chose the X kilt as my first victim. Granted, in past lives I've been a toolmaker, a designer and a mechanical engineer, so figures, measurements and calculations are no stranger to me. Neither is my anal retentive, perfectionist nature that makes me wish the marks on a tape measure came to a point so you could accurately measure the length of a 2 x 4 when building a dog house within a few thousandths of an inch. But I digress....

I purchased my material after wandering around looking at various colors and fabrics for a few days and set to work.

I had my kilt laid out and ready to sew. In about 6-8 hours!! Yeah, that was just the calculations, cutting the yardage in half, measuring and marking, which is probably the easiest part IMO because you can remark the lines and refigure if you make a mistake. You haven't sewn anything yet.

Then I find out that the fabric I've grown to love and couldn't wait to see around my waist contained a bit of spandex that was not known to me and when I started sewing my pleats they puckered like, well, something that really puckers. Mind you this was after I spent god knows how long pressing all of the folds for the pleats. I thought maybe this was the way it was supposed to be, so I kept at it and sewed about 5 of my 16 pleats. I'm now about 6-7 more hours deep into this kilt project. I press the pleats again so they look good.......for about 5 minutes then they pucker again. After a few hours of messing with the machine, I find out it's the fabric and I pitch the lot into the trash.

I've invested between 12 and 15 hours and not even finished sewing 1/3 of the pleats. (the first major sewing operation for those who haven't made an X kilt) I kept thinking throughout the process that if this wasn't relaxing to me, I'd never be able to earn a living at it, or have the patience to finish one kilt. And this was an X kilt with very good instructions. After this experience I couldn't believe how Rocky could only charge what he did to get me my casual in a less than a week.

Even if you don't know how to sew, or don't want to sew, look through the X kilt manual and go through the motions up to the point to which the sewing starts using a roll of paper towel for your "fabric". You will be AMAZED at the time it takes and if nothing else, you'll come away with a much better appreciation of kiltmakers. Be they hand stitching, 80 year old Scot sewing by lamplight in a cottage overlooking Loch Ness or the guy who whips out inexpensive "first kilts" for the masses at the rate of several a week.

Everything looks easy when you're watching a professional do it. That is why they are called professionals.

That being said.....

I tip my hat and raise my glass to all who have ever sewn a kilt, be it X or tank, it matters not, you have my admiration, respect and a bit of jealousy.

**Kilted-Marine** · 6th June 07, 02:28 PM

After all this talk about the fun of sewing them yourself, I have decided to give it a whirl.. but not just the kilt. I figure that anything worth doing yourself and trying to recreate how they did it in the long ago back home in the highlands (I am Keith and MacIntyre) is worth doing 100%.

So after much arguing with the wife and rearraging some things in our small apartment we took a drive south and picked up the neccassary items needed to accomplish the task.

It was a bit of a struggle to get the 2 sheep into the van and then even worse to get them up the elevator. but we have them penned in the den and I figure we should be ready to start wool production in about 5 months and the first kilt should roll off the production line early May 2009.

Next step figuring how to color the wool.... I will update you as we progress.

**The Wizard of BC** · 6th June 07, 02:43 PM

Ah yes, but did you get the correct breed of sheep?

**Kilted-Marine** · 6th June 07, 03:05 PM

I thought there were just WOOL sheep..are there more kinds then just ONE. dang it
We got a black one and a white one, figured we could make some dress macpherson kilts