What's all the hubub about hand stiching?

[thescot]

I have both inexpensive, machine sewn kilts and fully hand sewn kilts. I won't purchase a machine sewn again unless it's for mud wrestling or something that will ruin a good kilt. I don't mean to be disparaging the machine sewn varieties so much as expressing my strong preference for the fine craftmanship of traditional hand sewing.

All three of my fine kilts are works of art from three different craftsmen: House of Edgar, William MacIntosh (now retired), and Barb Tewksbury. I love the look, the sway, and the overall quality of them. The other two--and Leatherneck wool from SWK and a Gordon heavy weight from WPG--are good kilts, but not of the superior quality of the others.

I know you can purchase very good machine sewn kilts, but to me it's similar to good suits: you can buy a functional, fairly good suit from J. C. Penney--and I have--or you can buy a fine suit from Hickey Freeman. Both cover your body, but there is no comparison to the total end product. Nor are they intended to be the same.

I would encourage you to hold out for a good, hand made kilt from a really good kilt maker. It will last forever (metaphorically speaking) if you take good care of it.

[Barb T]

In a trad kilt, the pleat stitching is not supposed to show. If you machine stitch the pleats from the outside, the line of stitching shows. If you hand stitch carefully, the stitches don't show. That's why trad kilts are hand stitched.

Having said this, Rocky makes his kilts by machine stitching the pleats from the _inside_ so that the stitches don't show. It is really really hard to get the stripes to line up perfectly doing it this way, but Rocky has gotten really really good at it. He does it because he doesn't like hand stitching, not because it's any faster (he says that he rips out about 1 in 6 pleats) or because it's any stronger.

I can stitch 5-6 pleats an hour by hand. I could probably do only about 2 an hour net if I tried to do it Rocky's way!

[ForresterModern]

I own 7 handsewn kilts, 6 tanks and one Kingussie, all wool, from 6 different respected kilt makers who shall remain nameless, along with another 7 machine sewn wool kilts, all but one of them full 8 yarders. I also own one 8yd PV machine sewn. Only the PV has any topsewn stitching other than that for the straps and buckles and such. Without taking any of them and tearing them apart it is difficult to tell the difference between the handsewns and the machine sewns by looking at them---a few subtle differences but not much. Virtually all the fell stitching on all but the PV is evenly spaced and virtually invisible from the outside of the kilt, unless it has been inordinately stressed by my fat @rse. But there are small detail differences between them with the handsewns all using slighly sturdier straps and somewhat nicer and neater linings. The big difference I sense is the feeling of the fit being just a bit more comfortable, even though none of the handsewns had the advantage of the kiltmaker personally measuring me or adjusting the fit afterward. One handsewn, the second from the same kiltmaker, did have a few adjustments made on the original measurements that significantly improved the fit of the second kilt over the first from that same kiltmaker. I think that is probably the best benefit of working with a kiltmaker to get your handsewns---having the ability to adjust your designated measurements with any follow-up kilts to improve the overall fit of the subsequent kilts. On the second kilt we changed the width of the front apron by an inch or more as well as increased the rise by a full inch without changing the overall length, both improving the fit and look of the later kilt, and hopefully any further to come. All this was done with photos and emails exchanged.

That is not much help first time around---best recommendation for that would to be have your kilt made by a kiltmaker who you can go to for them to measure you their way, and so they can see your body type and shape and potentially accommodate that in the design, layout, and build of your kilt.


j