My kilting sofar

[yoippari]

Since I got my stillwater (which is having a fell added) back in september I have had very few responses. There are the odd "nice kilt", or thumbs up things but only once in a while will anyone actually ask about it.

One woman, I think a teacher on the way to a class, asked me what tartan it was. When I responded black stuart she said that you really only see the red one (I assume the royal stuart is the same as the red one and that there is not a red stuart). We talked a little then parted ways for our classes.

When I got my 4 yard box pleated kilt (is there a simpler way to say that, like albanach kilt or something?) it started recieving comments. It became my primary kilt simply because the fit was better. One of the guys at church (also my boss' step father and the reason I have my job) says if I am going to wear a skirt then I should shave my legs. You quickly learn to take very little of what he says seriously, even when he has a straight face, though that is not always a good thing. I wore it to church several times and one of the people there says that he has been thinking about getting a utilikilt and he goes up to seattle often enough but he simply hasn't done it yet. He did go in once and I can't remember why he didn't get one. I think it had to do with what was on the shelf.

I wore my albanach kilt to the family christmas/birthday party last weekend. There are 12 birthdays on the Hawes side of the family in december (including me) so we have been using it as an excuse for a party I guess since the '70s. Anyway I don't think I got one compliment per se but I did get a couple of questions. One of them was about the socks, which were just green soccer socks. My great aunt simply said that it was an interesting look and will leave it at that. A couple of cousins asked "why a kilt?".

While I was there I talked to a cousin who is a very good seamstress about the possibility of making a kilt. I am hopefull about it but am afraid that the project will scare her off. She thought that it might be around $40 labor. She went bug eyed when I mentioned that the labor for the one I was wearing was around $180 (I think that is the base price for it). She also went bug eyed when I mentioned that for my size it would probably be around 6 or 7 yards of material. I will keep you guys updated if anything comes from that.

That is really all of note sofar. As I said, aside from the odd looks and thumbs up either no one seems to care, I don't notice them, or they just ignore me.

[Graham]

Jacob, that's about the sum of my responses, except that here very few would know what a utilikilt is, whether in church or not!

I guess no response is good really, you can just get on with kilted life.

[NewKilt]

Jacob,

I think most people don't care what you are wearing as long as you look decent. And, if they do care, the just keep their opinions to themselves. Most of my experience has been no comments at all. When people have commented, it's been positive.

I'm sure I'll get a negative reaction from someone sometime in the future, but frankly, I don't care. It will be their problem, not mine.

Darrell

[GMan]

You're right Jacob, most people really do not care what you wear. The ones who say something are the ones who would say something snide whether you were kilted or not.

[MacMullen]

While I was there I talked to a cousin who is a very good seamstress about the possibility of making a kilt. I am hopefull about it but am afraid that the project will scare her off. She thought that it might be around $40 labor. She went bug eyed when I mentioned that the labor for the one I was wearing was around $180 (I think that is the base price for it). She also went bug eyed when I mentioned that for my size it would probably be around 6 or 7 yards of material. I will keep you guys updated if anything comes from that.

Once you get past the idea of all of those pleats, sewing a kilt is not as intimidating as it looks. And 6 or 7 yards is only if it's single width fabric. You can get an 8 yard kilt out of 5 yards of 60" fabric.