Kilt Makers in old newsreels

[bonnie heather]

Thanks for the old newsreels about kiltmaking. It was fascinating to see the production methods.

I was surprised that they marked the aprons free hand and left so little fabric for the facing.

Also, when the lady was pinning the lower pleats, she seemed to be eyeballing it, without a gauge or measure. I can picture that working when pleating to the stripe, but I think it would be trickier if pleating to the sett.

My kiltmaking teacher is from Scotland and is now retired but she had made kilts for more than 50 years. She said that when she started at age 15, they had to practice marking units of measure (ex. 1/2 inch) on brown paper again and again until they could "see" what the measurement was without having to measure.

Back then, I wonder if when large numbers of kilts for regiments had to be produced, could it be that kiltmakers pleated up the backs to some kind of standard sizes, to work faster. ????