Hello to everyone. I just made my first kilt and you all helped

[Performxl]

Hi. I’m living in the Mexican pacific city/town of Puerto Escondido and after years of using a sarong (a Southeast Asia lower body wrap for men) after surf sessions I decided to make a kilt. A surf-kilt. I have Scottish blood and it just feels right.
I’m really happy with the results. I used Dacron material in plaid. The buckles are made from plastic side release buckles.
It’s a really cool looking classic style kilt (the top is by the navel and not low on the hips like a UT kilt.
I had a local seamstress do the sewing (I did the pleating) and due to the local economy, her labor cost is very affordable.
I made a couple of belts out of car seatbelt webbing and stainless steel O-rings, but ideally I think a 2” heavy duty side buckle with the car seatbelt webbing would work best and be more apropo to the whole surfing theme. Unfortunately I couldn’t find that supply locally. I’ll try to get someone to bring it from the US

The idea is to make a kilt to use to take off your board shorts (surf swim trunks) in public and then to air dry and stay cool, BE cool 😎 and dry.

I saw the “sporty kilt” online and didn’t like the look (skirty, basically). My build is pub-worthy, at least where I’m from (dunno in Scotland or where experienced kilt-wearers tread, although I think I’d get respect for having made it myself).

I’ve got no idea as to the longevity of the material in this weather and use context (so far no pilling 👍) but I think it’ll work out. I’m sure that it wouldn’t hold a candela to authentic tartan or even the poly viscose I’ve read about, but for the affordable cost, I can’t complain.

I found a company online that makes a polyester ripstop cloth in a plaid which will be my ideal project. They are out of stock so I’ll need to wait until they restock.

I’ve got some questions regarding the correct placement of the buckles, I did my best after spending hours analyzing images, videos and tutorials online.

I already have some ideas to improve on the surf-beach kilt theme (putting a terry cloth insert in the back from the top to almost the hem, with Velcro backing... comfy to sit on, only need to dry or wash that part.

Tomorrow I’m planning on finding something I can use as a sporran: either something I can adapt or find someone to make me a sporran out of synthetic materials that can handle the salt water conditions.



I want to thank the creator of the tutorial pdf (I’m writing this on my phone and don’t have access to the pdf right now, so I don’t remember your name!). Thanks for the hard work! It made it less scary.

I’ll let you all know how the sporran creation goes.

Let me know if you ever want to come to Mexico, I can make recommendations for many places here. And please give me feedback, let me know what you think!