Burnett's and Struth model

[M. A. C. Newsome]

You wear it extremely well!

It's always nice to see a real person wearing a kilt made in a tartan you like, instead of some model who has had fifteen people making sure that hit outfit it just perfect. It's gives a much better impression of the tartan too.

Thanks! I put together that outfit myself, over the course of several years. In other words, it was not conceived as "an outfit," but just put together from items I managed to acquire.

I've had the sporran the longest, probably over 10 years now. Picked it up from an antiques dealer at a Highland Games for a song.

I made the kilt for myself a few years back, simply because I liked the tartan, and Lochcarron had a length of it on sale, which was the excuse I needed to pull the trigger. At first I experimented with the cloth by making a tailored belted plaid ("cheater" pleats sewn into the waist). I wore it once or twice, but decided I'd get much more use from it as a more modern style kilt.

I had originally purchased 4 yards double width of the material, but had used one yard of that to make cadadh, leaving me with 3 yards double width left to make a kilt. I thought about making a four yard box pleated kilt from it, but that would only use two yards of the cloth, and I wasn't sure what I'd do with the remaining material. So I opted for a six yard knife pleated kilt, which would use all the material I had.

I've been very happy with the kilt and worn it often.

When the museum began working with a sock mill offering custom dyed Argyle and diced hose, I needed to order a few "sample pair" to determine whether this would be a good product to offer in our gift shop. I had a couple of pair made for myself, and one of them was the pair of black and grey castellated hose you see here. That was probably about a year ago.

The buckle brogues were acquired a couple of years ago through a trade with a fellow X Marker.

The Sheriffmuir doublet and waistcoat I only acquired last winter. I came into possession of some nice Harris Tweed cloth, and a friend of mine planted a seed in my mind by mentioning he had once upon a time had a Sheriffmuir made from Harris Tweed. I was intrigued by the idea, and so sent the cloth in to my jacket makers. I didn't have enough of the dark charcoal tweed to make a doublet and waistcoat, so I sent in a small length of a lighter grey tweed for the waistcoat, thinking the contrast would work out well.

I was very pleased with it when it came in. I didn't have it made specifically to wear with this kilt, but once I had the finished doublet in my hands, I knew it would look especially nice with this kilt.

Of course, now that I had a Sheriffmuir doublet in my possession, I needed a lace jabot and matching cuffs. My wife had been doing some Victorian Lace knitting, so instead of purchasing a jabot and cuff sett ready made, I asked her to knit a set for me. I always like wearing items my wife has knit. Plus, this way, I could have a jabot made that was not quite as full and ruffly as most of them are. I rather wanted a more understated style.

She finished the jabot in time for the Burns Supper this past January, but the cuffs were only completed later.

So there you have it -- a nice outfit that has been slowly pieced together over many years. I did not originally conceive of this as "an outfit" but it just kind of came together from pieces I acquired.