Best Value For a Great Kilt

[Kamilavalamp]

I want to get a great kilt made for me to keep me warm and toasty throughout the brutal CT winters, I would like to get it from Celtic Croft, (kilts-n-stuff.com) because they have so many different options and prices and I can find a tartan I like in any of their Lists. I might even wrap myself up in it when I sleep so I would like it to be pretty durable. I would prefer not to spend a fortune on it but if it's necessary to I will. What type and options do you think would be my best bet for the purpose of a durable, toasty warm, Great-Kilt from them? If you think I could get a better value somewhere else I'd welcome that advice too. I feel frozen whenever the temperature goes under 71 Degrees F so the warmer this thing is the better. CT winters get to almost -20 below and my house is 100 years old with no insulation and the wind goes right through it.

[ctbuchanan]

So many questions. I can't offer an opinion on Celtic Croft and I certainly have nothing against them. I just wonder if you might do as well with a local kilt maker? Bonnie Heather Greene is an XMarks advertiser and just across the border from CT in NY. She has made me kilts and done other work for me and I've always found her to be very cooperative and professional and able to offer options and ideas. And her workmanship is of the highest level.

Others who know more about the great kilt will offer suggestions I'm sure. If it is strictly warmth you are looking for I would assume a 16 oz wool tartan would fit the bill nicely.

You could always get a good Hudson Bay Blanket for the winter nights and leave yourself more options for your kilt.
Aye
CTBuchanan (a fellow Nutmegger)

[Mike S]

Just to clarify, Celtic Croft is an XMarks advertiser as well.

[SPS tools]

I just ordered a great kilt from [URLhttps://sportkilt.com/product/9963/Great-Kilt.html[/URL] in Ross Hunting. Price is reasonable and available in a variety of tartans, but it is P/V. It arrived today

I've been playing with it, trying to get the pleats right. Using the method shown in the video (see above link), I end up with pleats to the stripe. I'm on my 4th try pleating and getting better, but still not where it looks nice.

Does anyone have any tricks for pleating a great kilt?

Yes, I've seen the hint to run a row of stitching down the middle when I get it right.

[The Wizard of BC]

OK, I'm going to wade in on this one with a different approach. I also know that some of you don't want to hear this.

There is very little historical documentation of what a Great Kilt actually was and none on how it was put on or worn. We do know that the period of the Great Kilt was fairly short. Perhaps 100 years or less.

We do have documentation of what is perhaps the forerunner of the Great Kilt. The Irish had been wearing the Leine and Brat for centuries. We have some pretty good illustrations of them and some solid historical evidence.

Here is the cover of Gerald A. John Kelly's book "Before the Kilt"



And of course we have many illustrations and documentation of another, very similar garment that many of you will have seen but perhaps not known by name.

This other Garment is known as a Matchcoat. If you have ever seen an illustration or photo of a N.American Indian wrapped in his trade blanket you have seen a matchcoat.

Thick, heavy blankets have been woven for a very long time. Not only as bedding but as clothing. There is evidence of the weaving of blankets in every culture and may date as far back as weaving itself, to the Paleolithic period.

One of the things that always brings a chuckle to my face is when I see one of the Ren Faire group demonstrate the Great Kilt by laying out 9 yards of light weight, single width, modern kilt fabric and hand pleat it. All the while going on an on how practical a garment the Great Kilt was.
They always say how the Scots of old would wrap up in their Great Kilt to sleep and how well it protected them in the Highland winter while out hunting.

The image that goes through my head is some guy waking up in the morning. What is the first thing everyone needs to do first thing in the morning? Would you want to lay out 18 feet of fabric and hand pleat it just to go to the bathroom?

There is a better idea.

It is not a great leap to go from this



To this



Even R.R. MacIan created many of his famous plates with images that are very similar. Here is just one. MacArthur.





So what is a Matchcoat?

Well does not the Gaelic word "Plaide" mean something similar to "Blanket"?

You get up in the morning. Shake out the blanket you just slept nice and warm in and quickly drape it over you head for a moment.



Then fasten it around your waist with the same belt that has been holding your Leine up.



If it's a cold day leave the blanket wrapped around your shoulders.



If it is warm out hike the bottom up to your knees. If cold leave it down long to protect your legs.

If it is warm you can also drop it off your shoulders and fasten it out of the way with a pin.



Now you are ready for a day out in the heather. Perfectly warm, dry and this sure looks like a quick and easy hunting blind.





So, what do you need for a Great Kilt AKA Matchcoat?

Just a blanket. if the iconic Hudson's Bay Point Blanket is not your cup of tea -



And you don't want to use a grey army blanket -



Perhaps one of these very decorative Navaho blankets would work.



And if you are a lady it's not called a matchcoat it's called an Arisaid -




It sure makes more sense to me than this does.

[freep]

I was once a historian. Being such gives one perspective. Just as all that glitters is not gold, all that passes for historical accuracy is based largely upon speculation. I also once was a Buckskinner, i.e. one who recreates the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade 1800-1840--the Mountain Men. Thus I've lived "rough" as my Brit friends say, camping primitive for sometimes weeks at a time.

If you want to skip my ravings below, here's the short form: What happened back then is open to speculation and responsible attempts at re-creating those times require one inject a healthy bit of common sense into one's considerations. Given what we can glean from the writings of the time, what interpretation makes the most sense? Also given that, what were the motives an prejudices of the authors of the original documents?

So. Great kilts. After some thought, it seems to me the great kilt grew out of the matchcoat. That said, I'm thinking all that six or eight yards of fabric back in the day was more like four or five. I'm also thinking all that pleating was more like bunching, and that could likely be done standing up.

Even with that my guess is did a lad have a walkabout on the moors or heilans, he'd neatly dress in his kilt, bunched or pleated, six yards or four, and head out. Come evening, did he have no tent, cave or wickiup he'd pull the top half of his kilt o're his heid and go to sleep. But, but, I hear you say, why have all that spare fabric? For the same reason the nylon, polyfleece and backpack bunch carry a space blanket. If needs be, in a survival situation, wounded or just lost and cold all that extra plaid could mean the difference between death and survival.

As for a normal jaunt through the heather, the kilt stayed on, all the time. Think about it, last time you went for a week's deer hunt (or camp out or whatever awa' from civilization), did you strip nekkid every night? Here in bear country, I don't 'cause I don't want to be running bruins off in me skivvy shorts. Do I stink at the end of the week? Oh, aye! Do I wash up well when I get back? Oh, aye! Did they wear great kilts or something like what we call that these days? Probably.

Someone, Bob Martin I think, postulated some great kilts had wee loops for a drawstring inside--the equivalent of stitched "cheater pleats." That makes sense too--if you were gonna wear a whole lot of fabric just in cases but not use it as a blanket all the time, a drawstring would make sense, just as, for me, cheater pleats make sense. I can envision 16th century cheater pleats because if the extra fabric was indeed an emergency precaution, I can see where a guy would run a seam across the pleats and in extremity rip out the seam to access the extra cloth.

I don't yet have a kilt. I'm going to get either a great kilt or a wee kilt. It will have cheater pleats. I'll probably be able to put it on standing up. Will I be "authentic?" Maybe, do I care? No. Why? Because it's not 1700, I'm close enough and just the concept of wearing the thing makes me smile, regardless of authenticity.

Jus' sayin'.