Is my kilt the size I think it is?

[Steve Ashton]

I hope you found this helpful.

Let me re-cap just a few points.

Communicate, communicate, communicate.

If you really want to avoid problems, want to avoid the expense of sending a kilt back to be remade, and want to avoid the disappointment of a kilt that does not fit, communicate with your kiltmaker.

If you are buying your kilt on-line this communication becomes doubly important. If you are buying from one of the larger retail outlets that does not make their own kilts it become triply important.

(And it is amazing how many retailers you can find on line that sub-contract their kilts. Even I have been approached by some of these companies to do sub-contract work. If there is a question ask before you put down your hard earned money.)



Take good measurements first.

Read the instructions from the place you will order your kilt from. Follow those instructions to the letter. Just because you may think you know what your measurements are they may be different using the instructions from this kiltmaker.

A kiltmaker using the Traditional method will ask for three measurements. Waist circumference - Hip or breech circumference - and the Drop. (But remember that the Drop is different from the total length of the kilt to a Traditional kiltmaker.)

Just because the measuring system of the maker asks for the same 3 measurements does not guarantee that the kilt is made in the Traditional manner.

Know what type of kilt your kiltmaker makes.

Ask them if their kilt is designed to be worn at the anatomical waist or somewhere else.
Ask them if their Drop is the total length of the kilt or Drop + Rise. Ask if the Rise has flare.
Ask them if the Fell is 1/3 the length or something different.

For example -
This kilt is designed to be worn at the anatomical waist but the wearer is wearing it lower than it was designed to be worn. This is perhaps the most common thing you will see today. A garment designed to be worn at the anatomical waist being worn down where pants fit today.



Notice please that the bottom of the Fell Area is well below the line of the hips causing the shower curtain folds.. Notice also the popped stitches in the Fell of this kilt. This is caused by the wearer sitting on the part that is stitched which puts undue stress on the stitching.

Before you get all hot and upset over a kilt that arrived that does not fit. Before you write the kiltmaker saying that they made the kilt wrong, take the time to use this tutorial to insure that the kilt was made to the measurements you sent in. And that you are wearing the kilt they way it was designed to be worn.