highland warrior's kilt

[M. A. C. Newsome]

That's the only way I've been told to measure for kilt length... Is there a better way?

Stand up, back straight, and have someone else measure for you this way (if you try and measure yourself, you'll mess up the measurement by bending down):

Take a cloth tape and put the number 2 on the top of your hipbone (assuming your kilt is to be made with a standard 2" rise). Then measure straight down the side of the leg to the point you want the kilt to fall. As I said, anywhere from mid-knee to about an inch above the top of the knee is generally considered appropriate. I personally prefer no longer than the top of the knee.

This gives you your total kilt length measurement. Be sure to talk to your kiltmaker, though. Some kiltmakers consider the rise of the kilt separately from the kilt length, so in that case you'd want to just measure from the top of the hipbone down without adding the 2" for the rise. The kiltmaker will add that amount to the kilt. This is why you sometimes will see kilt lengths expressed such as "22 + 2 = 24." This means the "kilt length" is 22" from waist to knee, and the 2" rise makes the total length of the kilt 24".

That's really more of an issue when the kiltmaker is dealing with rises of varying lengths. Most, though, will always be 2" so it's becoming more and more common to just include that 2" rise as part of the total kilt length and just give the kiltmaker one number. The 2" rise is then assumed to be part of that total.

Always talk to your kiltmaker to be sure, though!
Aye,
Matt