Being a bit of a leatherworker myself (and married to a professional saddle maker/leatherworker extraordinaire), I didn't want to buy an off-the-shelf kilt belt or sporran.

I also didn't want to buy a typical kilt belt buckle, as I'm not over fond of the huge belt buckle look on a kilt. So I made my kilt belt in the "Ranger style", commonly seen on gun belts, where the wide belt splits into two straps with two buckles.

I made this belt from two 2-1/4" wide strips I cut from a brown chap-leather (oil-tanned) hide. I stitched them together for bulk. The buckle side of the belt lets the under-layer run long and laps under the billet side so you don't see the kilt behind the buckle area. I kind of designed it 'on the fly' as I was making it, and it only took about 2 hours, start to finish. My wife did all the stitching on the leather sewing machine, which saved me uncountable hours of hand-stitching.




The sporran I made from the "Rob Roy" pattern found online. I made it from the same brown chap-leather hide as the belt. The entire thing was hand-stitched using the two-needle "saddle stitch" method. I used a pewter button with Gaelic stylized horses for the closure, with a simple elastic loop (OK, one of my wife's hair ties) coming out the bottom front of the pouch.

I hand-braided a 4-part round braid using small round leather lacing material for the loops on the sides and front. Then, when I got the length of the loops where I wanted them, I braided on the larger hanging tassels. These are also a 4-part round braid, ending with a simple Turks-head knot at the end, and the free ends left to hang as fringe.

I know these tassels are longer than traditional sporran tassels, but I like the look. They flop about when I'm walking, which adds some flair to the swish of the kilt.

I hand-stitched some leather tabs on the back with D-rings, then made a custom-length sporran belt with simple snap-hooks.





This is what they look like with the rest of my ensemble: