Sporron positioning question?

[Cheryl Mc.psd]

Hi there.

My piping school asked me to get a sporran for our "uniform" ( Our kilts don't have to match and we are allowed to wear our own tartan. I'm not wearing the uniform is this photo BTW) The problem is it's soo loose I have to modify it for it to stay on. (I'm wearing the kilt an inch and a bit over by belly button BTW) This is how high it will be with a hole punctured at the closest segment of the leather. Should I go higher and take out some chain links as well or just put the clip higher on the chain on top of the new hole position?

I'm also wondering If I should modify my kilt as well. It's a casual wool kilt with only straps on one side and velcro being used on the other side. There are no belt loops either. I'm not sure if resting it on one buckel is enough to be secure. Should I add belt loops? I don't have scraps of McGill tartan but I have scraps of royal stewart.

Thanks

[knotty]

The sporran does look a lil high to me. If you could bring it up half the distance to the top of kilt should be about right. You might want to modify the chains.

Craig

[Chas]

Cheryl, there is a lot more to sporran positioning than looks.

Function (what is the sporran supposed to do), how much it has to move around (drummers have then on their hips) and finally anatomy (boys and girls are different).

Final height is up to you. You have to be able to use it and it mustn't get in your way when you are working.

I would recommend a strap rather than a chain. The sporran will slide on a strap, whereas the sporran and straps have to move together. Loops will always show (no matter how well they are made), so you might as well have a pair made from a solid colour or even leather.

As far as I am concerned, your outfit looks OK as it is.

Regards

Chas

[O'Callaghan]

Cheryl, there is a lot more to sporran positioning than looks.

Function (what is the sporran supposed to do), how much it has to move around (drummers have then on their hips) and finally anatomy (boys and girls are different).

Final height is up to you. You have to be able to use it and it mustn't get in your way when you are working.

I would recommend a strap rather than a chain. The sporran will slide on a strap, whereas the sporran and straps have to move together. Loops will always show (no matter how well they are made), so you might as well have a pair made from a solid colour or even leather.

As far as I am concerned, your outfit looks OK as it is.

Regards

Chas

I wear my sporran as high as I can get it to stay, but that is because I don't like it to be able to swing and hit me in the male anatomy! Nonetheless, that isn't all that high, because there is only so high it will go when using a chain belt, which naturally hangs down. Higher than in your pic, though. This may be what Chas is alluding to? Obviously not a problem for you. Why there are men who like to wear it lower is not a puzzle that I am particularly anxious to solve. As long as they don't tell me where to wear mine I am happy.

If you feel you need to wear yours higher to get it to stay up, then by all means do so. With a chain belt one normally adjusts the belt part of it at the buckle. I don't find I have a particular problem when wearing kilts that have no belt loops. As for having a buckle only on one side, I think I would feel tempted to add a dummy buckle that always stays done up on the other side, if only to get the sporran to hang evenly.

ETA: It looks even in you pic, though. I don't think anyone would notice that there is only one buckle.

[Jerry_Galovic]

Okay. If I may, I'd like to throw in another question on how to wear the sporran. I wore my first kilt two days ago to the Chicago Scottish Highland Festival. I have a combination sporran chain/strap (it is from USAKilts and has a buckle in the back to adjust the widths with a chain attached to both sides that wrap around and hook onto the sporran.) I had pulled the sporran chain through all 3 belt loops. But at the games, I noticed some wore the sporran chain only through the back loop and I thought I saw one person wearing it wrapped around without pulling through any of the loops. I couldn't figure out how it stayed up but it did. Is there a single proper way to run the sporran chains or is it up to the user?

[creagdhubh]

Looks fine to me!

[OC Richard]

Looks just about right to me!

What has always struck me as odd is how models who are modelling Highland Dress for current Highland Outfitters' catalogues/websites tend to wear their sporrans very high. Never looks right to me. Just lookee here:

http://www.geoffreykilts.co.uk/ofargyll.html

Here we can see a group of gents accustomed to wearing Highland dress. There is a bit of variety of sporran height:



Pipers of course wear kilts all the time. Here's a group in 1950, at Oban. Note the relative uniformity of sporran height:



and a group of the world's top pipers in 2005. The fellow with the trophy has his sporran quite high, the others not:

[KenB]

Looks good to my eye.

[MacMillans son]

Looks good to me Cheryl. Understanding that there is not a hard and fast rule, the guideline that I've heard is to have the top of the sporran about a hands width below your belt. If you were wearing a belt, it appears that your sporran would be right with that guideline.

Welcome aboard by the way!

[KiltedCodeWarrior]

I would say if you were wearing a belt, it is just right.