Quote Originally Posted by The Barry View Post
I agree with the concept of the OP. You really can't dress up inferior fabric, but you can certainly take 5 yards (instead of 8) of nice fabric and make an excellent looking kilt. If you're on a budget crunch, maybe that's the way to go.

But, for my formal kilt, only one thing would do: family tartan, 16 oz, 8 yards, hand sewn. Period.

But, that's just me, I'm picky about certain things.
I totally understand. I also have enough financial resources to do exactly what you've done. Even if I didn't make it myself, I could over a few months, save up enough to purchase (not make) a nice "eight yard" kilt in MacNaughton, 13 or 16 ounce.

But you know, when I was 22 or 23 years old and right out of school, I didn't have that sort of money. Not only that, but I knew I wouldn't be able to afford such a thing for years and years. It wasn't a matter of waiting a year or two, it would have been matter of waiting for TEN years to be able to afford that fantastic kilt. When I got out of college it took me four months to find a job and I made $800 a month. Taxes took a quarter of that, or $200. Now i have $600. My rent was about $150. My share of the food was about $100. Now I'm down to $350 a month. I had a car which I needed to get to work...gas and insurance at up a chunk. It took me three months to pay off my wedding ring and I had to pay back my parents for a loan. Where does the kilt money come out of? It just wasn't there. When I got married I had to work and pay for school and the gas to commute to it. We lived on my 25 hours a week of retail work at $5.75 an hour plus a few gigs I'd get playing sax or clarinet, and Joans graduate stipend. Kilt money? Where?

Telling me to save up for a tank, back then was tantamount to saying "you can't have a kilt for years and years and years". So...what? I'm not supposed to wear a kilt at ALL, while I wait? Some people would say yes, that's right...you should wait and not wear a kilt at all until you have the resources to buy a first-class kilt. They feel that anything less than the best is a waste of money, and that's fine. I'd wager that most of those people would feel that you must also have a first-class sporran and premier colored kilt hose and anything less is a mark of disrespecting Scottish tradition and culture.

I happen to disagree.

I feel that wearing the best you can afford is OK, that owning and wearing a kilt is a fine thing but I wouldn't, for example, quit playing music so that I'd save the gas money I spend going to rehearsals so that I could put that money towards a kilt. I wouldn't stop eating dinner so that I could buy a kilt. I wouldn't quite graduate school so I could save money for a kilt. I feel that there's a balance between saving and saving and saving and saving for YEARS, or giving up basic things (not your daily Starbucks latte) so that you can put two dollars a week into a kilt jar......and saving maybe only for one year and buying a somewhat less-wonderful, but still very nice kilt. Having a "good" kilt, but not a "GREAT" kilt, is OK.

I DO agree that piddling money away on 8-9-10 plus less expensive kilts when you KNOW that what you want is a killer tank, is dumb. If you've got the money and you know what you want and you go spend it on something else, well...that's dumb.