My journey as a kiltmaker -> WARNING, excessively long post.

[Alan H]

I first got the notion about wearing kilt when I attended a few Cedltic music festivals. I saw a band named "Tempest" and their fiddle player wore a black Utilikilt. This led to a visit to the UK booth,where I practically fainted at the price, being used to buying blue jeans at Mervyn's. THAT led to an online search for less-expensive alternatives, and X Marks the Scot. My first purchased was a Stillwater standard acrylic in Black Watch. My second was a USA Kilts Casual model. I looked closely at the casual model and said to myself….

"I can do that"

My first kilt was for all intents and purposes a copy of the USA Kilts Casual model, done up in 100% cotton, in a caramel color. It wrinkled like the dickens, was 3 inches too small, and was stiff as a board, but I did it. I was right, I COULD do that.

I would like to point out to all the worry-warts and their downloaded X-Kilt manuals, who are terrified that adding half an inch to the under-apron pleat is going to cause the polar ice caps to melt and maybe worse…there might be a little wrinkle in their kilt, to CHILL OUT. My first kilt sucked.

I sold it on X Marks. Then I made another one. It was a little bit better.

Then I bought some X Marks tartan, and Barbs book "The Art of Kiltmaking" and I sent Steve Ashton a note saying "I'm so looking forward to getting my X Marks tartan and making my first real kilt"…to which he responded…. "Don't you DARE ruin all that good cloth. You go buy some stuff off of ebay first and make practice kilt. THEN you make the X Marks Kilt.". Seeing as Steve Knows His Stuff, I figured that was good advice, so I did.

I bought some tartan wool off of ebay…it wasn't worsted, BTW, and sat down with Barb's book and 47 hours of hand sewing and shortcuts later, I had my first real tartan kilt. I still have it.

It just went from there., I made 4 prototypes while I was unemployed for 7 months and wrote the X Kilt manual. I made the F-H-C.A.G a kilt skirt. The same stuff made three more kilt skirts for Laura, Shelley and *sigh...she was SO beautiful*....Jamie. I used the leftover Lindsay, modern wool/poly blend from the F-H.C.A.G's skirt to make myself a 6 yard Lindsay kilt. I made Panache an X Kilt. I made Panache the infamous "Pink Kilt" as a joke for Burns night. Then I made some tartan miniskirts for some other lasses. I made more X Kilts for other people. For Christmas one year I got 2 yards of really nice California Modern Tartan material. I read as much as I could that Matt Newsome had written about his box-pleat kilts, and I made myself one. I made my friend Tim C a box-pleat kilt in the X Marks tartan. I spent 5 days at my in-laws house, as my mother in law died, sewing up a 7-yard Gray Stewart kilt for myself using thread from her sewing box. I made some more kilts for other people…sold off a few that I had made, and made some more. A few were handsewn, most were a combination of hand-sewing and machine.

I thought about doing the Earth Kilt project and ordered some hemp/recycled polyester blend fabric and cranked that out as a model for the seamstresses. Man, I wish I still had that kilt. What was different about that one? --> The fabric. Once I got a "commission" from Piper Georges wife to make him a kilt in Dutch MacKay tartan. What was different about that one? It's the only time I've accepted money for making a kilt.

I remember knocking out a simple cotton/poly camouflage reverse kinguisse kilt on my mother in laws machine, up at Herron Island during our annual week of vacation up there. Then I made another one of those, this time for me. I still have that one, it's what I wear hiking and backpacking. What's different about that one? It's the only kilt I own that closes entirely with velcro. "No buckles" makes for a a great kilt under a external frame backpack waist belt.

At some point I realized that I'd made 50 kilts. It took about 6 years to get there, but I did, in fact make 50 kilts. It's more like 60, now. I started to make kilts for athletes. The first one was for Summer Pierson, the 3x women's world champion. I'd had dinner with Summer after the Pleasanton Highland Games and jokingly told her that she could have a bottle of Chartreuse Liquor, or a new kilt for Christmas. She picked the kilt. OK, then. The rest of that fabric went into a kilt that came out really well for G.G.G.P. here at X Marks. After that I started to get the idea that I could make a kilt specifically for athletes. I made one of those, incorporating all that I had learned, plus some new ideas of my own, for Mike Pockoski. Mike is one of the top throwers in the world, and he seriously needed a new kilt…his throwing kilt was a mess. Now it's a year later and I've made another kilt for a thrower - Dan McKim. I learned more stuff from making Dans kilt, too.

Here's the thing. Every single kilt that I've made has been a learning process. Nearly all of them have something in them that's a little bit different from the last one. I think I've pinned down how to make what I would consider to be the Ultimate Heavy Athletics Kilt, but aside from that, I expect that process….something new, every time….will continue. TRUTH…no two kilts made by me are identical in their construction details. Yet, they're all kilts. THE LESSON?

There is no on "right" way to make a kilt…such that all the other ways are "wrong".

LESSON #2. I keep learning stuff and that is fun.

COROLLARY #1 to LESSON #2. You can, too.

….that is, if you aren't one of those people who have to have everything laid out for you and explained and perfect-oh-so-perfect such that the process of learning and creating lasts for just as long as it takes to read the instructions, make one X-Kilt and call it done. So you see, when you read through that X-Kilt manual, understand that while I can and do see making a kilt as a specific series of tasks with a goal…..have a kilt you can wear…… I also see the whole thing as a PROCESS… a learning process. I'm a "maker" and an "improver" and that's all about "process". It's a process which can go on for years as you learn new things, like I have.

One kilt or 50? One or 500? It's up to you, but on my journey, it's only partly been about "kilts".