Royal Regiment of Scotland kilt pics

[sputnik]

old scottish proverb
if the kilt is above the knee your a boy
if it's at the knee your a man
if it's below the knee, your a liar

[turpin]

I'm betting that it has a typical high military rise, and that is why it's too long overall. You may have confused their length as stated on ebay with "drop" from true waist. Any time I am looking at a kilt on ebay I always ask the seller whether the stated length is total top to bottom, or from the center of the top buckle.

[Retro Red]

Hey, Bruce, I PM'd Barb T about the possiblity of hemming my RRS kilt, here's her reply -

"Well, I suspect that you got caught by the fact that "length" to a kiltmaker is the distance from the center of the buckle to the bottom. So, if your kilts are 24" overall, you need to give a kiltmaker a length of 22" to get a kilt that is 24" long (i.e., 22" length plus the rise). Ditto 21" for an overall length of 23". That's because the amount of rise can vary from kilt to kilt. It's the length from the center of the buckle that is the same for a particular size person.

I do know military box pleated kilts, and they would be extremely difficult to hem. It's possible to hem a heavy-weight, knife-pleated kilt, but a military box pleated kilt has too many little folds to hem well. I hate to say it, but I think you're stuck. What about selling it to someone else on eBay or in the forum?

Sorry for the bad news!

Barb"

So, that kind of explains how we both ended up with longer than expected kilts. I was going to write to Bill at Argyll Kilts & see if there was any chance of exchanging for a shorter version. Have you heard back from him?

.

[way2fractious]

RR, first let me thank you for the pictures. I studied them for several minutes and arrived at a tentative conclusion - one that will need to be tried out by needle, thread and fabric.

In regards to your new purchase, there is the option of shortening the kilt - intolerable to any purist and "wrong-headed" to any sensible person - and creating a new selvedge. This could be done by machine or by hand and would have to be done perfectly. This new selvedge - not hemmed - would take the pleating just fine.

Before doing that, however, a fitting should be done to determine if the fell length (sewn down portion of the pleats) will still be correct. These military kilts with 2-inch rises ride really high. Get the horizontal center line of the top buckle up into your natural waist and see if the top part fits correctly by sticking your index fingers into the first pleat on each side (left and right) and slide them up to where the stitched part begins. Your fingertips should rest atop the point of your leg bone where it enters your hip bone (everyone sing along now!), or the pivot points when you lift your legs (one at a time, please. We don't need a new jumping Hamish pose. ) If the top part of your kilt fits O.K...

.. then we can talk about the length.

Hey, Bruce, I PM'd Barb T about the possiblity of hemming my RRS kilt, here's her reply -

I do know military box pleated kilts, and they would be extremely difficult to hem. It's possible to hem a heavy-weight, knife-pleated kilt, but a military box pleated kilt has too many little folds to hem well. I hate to say it, but I think you're stuck.

I agree with Barb's assessment on hemming an MBP kilt, even in the "lighter" weight 16 oz worsted - and totally impossible in the 18+ oz fabrics of yesteryear.

So, here is where we entered this conversation previously... There is the option of shortening the kilt - intolerable to any purist and "wrong-headed" to any sensible person - and creating a new selvedge. This could be done [by a non-sensible person.] This new selvedge - not hemmed - would take the pleating just fine.

w2f, one of many non-sensible persons on this forum.

[BruceK]

These military kilts with 2-inch rises ride really high.

So the military kilts ride even higher than a standard traditional kilt? I usually wear said traditional kilt so that the top of the kilt is 1-2" above my navel. Seems like the military kilt will wind up just under my armpits...

[BruceK]

Before doing that, however, a fitting should be done to determine if the fell length (sewn down portion of the pleats) will still be correct. These military kilts with 2-inch rises ride really high. Get the horizontal center line of the top buckle up into your natural waist and see if the top part fits correctly by sticking your index fingers into the first pleat on each side (left and right) and slide them up to where the stitched part begins. Your fingertips should rest atop the point of your leg bone where it enters your hip bone (everyone sing along now!), or the pivot points when you lift your legs (one at a time, please. We don't need a new jumping Hamish pose. ) If the top part of your kilt fits O.K...

.. then we can talk about the length.

Wow. I just tried the kilt on again and if I follow the above description then the bottom of the kilt rests at durned near the top of my knee. So to paraphrase another post, I now have a kilt with a built-in corset. I am now reconsidering getting a shorter kilt or shortening this one. If that's the way the military kilts are supposed to be worn...

[BruceK]

I'm betting that it has a typical high military rise, and that is why it's too long overall. You may have confused their length as stated on ebay with "drop" from true waist. Any time I am looking at a kilt on ebay I always ask the seller whether the stated length is total top to bottom, or from the center of the top buckle.

That's precisely the measurement I sent the man. I measured the overall length of one of my other tanks and said that was the overall length I needed. I suspect something got confused somewhere along the line... Note that specific lengths were not listed on eBay - there were a variety of them available.

[TimC]

Hey RR, looks nice...I'd be dying having the kilt in my hot little hands and having it too long to wear. Hurry up and get it hemmed so we can get soem pic's of it being worn.

-Tim

[mudd]

You should have left those basting stitches in and just used one of those big paper cutters.

[turpin]

Yeah - and then fringe the raw end.