The OUTRAGEOUS Price of kilts!

[McMurdo]

Bravo Alan, you have summed up what I have been thinking in a way I could not. I for do not mind paying for quality, granted I spent quite a bit on my Isle of Skye, in my mind though the important question is would I pay it again, and for the quality of the kilt, I would gladly pay that price again, no question.

[Phil]

I couldn't agree more. The cheap kilts Alan talks about have their place when you might be going to a football/rugby game with a few drinks afterwards but there is no comparison with a hand-made worsted tartan kilt that will last a lifetime and be handed on to future generations (hopefully). I bought a metre of tartan recently and it cost £41 (about $80) to make up a waistcoat. I don't know what the retail markup was but I have always believed you only get what you pay for. If it seems too good to be true then it usually is. Handmade kilts are becoming a rarity now which is a shame but if nobody will pay for these skills then they will be lost forever.

[Robin]

Thank you Alan!

[Nerts]

Thank you Alan!

I second this!!!

E.

[LoftGuy]

Alan,

This Wizzard, lin attached, is widely used in the custom furniture/cabinetry and pattern making trades to determine realistic costs and pricing. Don't see why it couldn't be useful to a kilt maker, as well.

http://www.bridgewooddesign.com/estimator/index.htm

HTH,

Bob

[davedove]

I always understood why kilts were priced so high compared to the mass produced clothing out there. My question, given the cost of the material, is how can the kiltmakers charge so little?

[Freedomlover]

Yep. Lot's of work. But different folks have vastly different time requirements. A year or so ago I was cruising around the site of one of the bigger kiltmakers in Scotland (s***y, I don't recall which one), and he said that he turned out two handsewn finished kilts a day, and if pressed could do three. I think that if a maker was actually investing 25-30 hours, plus hundreds for material, he/she would quickly give it up as uneconomic even at $600 each.

[Alan H]

Yep. Lot's of work. But different folks have vastly different time requirements. A year or so ago I was cruising around the site of one of the bigger kiltmakers in Scotland (s***y, I don't recall which one), and he said that he turned out two handsewn finished kilts a day, and if pressed could do three. I think that if a maker was actually investing 25-30 hours, plus hundreds for material, he/she would quickly give it up as uneconomic even at $600 each.

Interesting. I have to wonder if he was teasing you or pulling your leg or there was a miscommunication or something. Barb has said that that it takes her about 20 hours to do a kilt. I believe Matt has said the same.

Bear once wrote on this board that it took him an 8-hour day plus a little more to crank out a fully machine-sewn, PV four-yard Bear Kilt.

How a custom kiltmaker could turn out three hand-sewn kilts in an 8-9 hour workday is beyond me. I could see two machine-sewn solid-color kilts, maybe. O'Neill on this board has said he can crank out a machine-sewn kilt in 4-5 hours, which boggles my mind...but OK. That's mighty darned fast, but *hey* it's within the realm of possibility. But that's machine sewn.

Three hand-sewn, wool, eight-yard kilts in one 8-9 hour work day? Three hours to make a kilt from selecting the fabric to finishing the buckles, hand-sewn? I have my doubts.

I don't doubt that that's what you heard...that's what the guy said, but I bet that something else was going on, here.

[Barb T]

Yep. Lot's of work. But different folks have vastly different time requirements. A year or so ago I was cruising around the site of one of the bigger kiltmakers in Scotland (s***y, I don't recall which one), and he said that he turned out two handsewn finished kilts a day, and if pressed could do three. I think that if a maker was actually investing 25-30 hours, plus hundreds for material, he/she would quickly give it up as uneconomic even at $600 each.

What this kilt house told you is simply, utterly impossible unless more than one person is working on a kilt and there's some kind of production line. Even though I work in true speedy fashion, I can't make a kilt in under 18-20 hours, and that's even if I sew the top band on by machine, which is the only machine stitching in any kilt that I make (and I hand sew that part if I don't happen to be at home). Those of us who make kilts professionally have nothing to gain by being pokey! Every one of us works as efficiently and rapidly as possible, because, as Alan pointed out, we don't make much per hour.

In the spirit of Alan's back-of-the-envelope calculations, here's what it would take to make one kilt in four hours (not including bathroom or coffee breaks!):

layout: I'll give you about 15 minutes for determining apron/pleats split, marking length, ripping the tartan, figuring out pleat pattern, pleat size, marking all pleats, and basting apron edges.

pleats: I'll give you a generous 1 hour to do the pleats. Let's suppose 25 pleats. That's a bit over 2 minutes per pleat. At about 10 stitches per inch and 8" per pleat, you'd need to do one stitch a second and still manage to get each pleat measured and pinned in under 40 seconds.

and then I'll give you about 15 minutes for each of the following:
-making the back join (requires two seams), turning up the bottom in two places, and basting the pleats (5 rows of stitching)
-cutting out the pleats and steeking the pleats
-putting in the stabilizer, tailor basting the apron and underapron shaping, and reinforcing the buttonhole
-sewing canvas into the apron, underapron, and back (4-5 rows of tailor stitching plus basting the rest)
-making and shaping the fringe edge and underapron edges, tailor basting, and hand stitching the edges
-sewing on the top band (2 sets of basting stitches and two lines of permanent stitching) and loops, if the kilt has them
-pressing the kilt (this alone takes 30-40 minutes if you do a good job, not including drying time)
-making the buckle tabs and sewing on the buckles and straps
-lining the apron, underapron, and back of the kilt
-removing all of the basting stitches (this alone takes 20 minutes if you've basted properly)

There's not a single step above that can be done in 15 minutes, and many of those steps are more like hour jobs or more. So how someone could say with a straight face that he can turn out 2 handsewn traditional kilts a day is beyond me!!

Cheers,

Barb

[Kiltferone]

As a newbie buying my first kilt I had no idea how much time went into one. I should not be surprised though. I build custom wood furniture and small crafts as a hobby. I sell a few pieces a year. (I don't keep track of my time I would be to depressed to know.) This money goes right back into my hobby. People ask me all the time why I don't do it full time. It is the same answer as here. Very hard to do custom handmade work and make a living at it. So I hope someday to be able to have a handmade custom kilt made and I will have no problems paying the price. Thanks for a great thread!