Best material for a test kilt

[The Wizard of BC]

When you get right down to it, there is only one way to learn how to make a kilt. Start at the beginning and take it all the way to the end. And then do it again, and again.

So, if you start with good fabric your end result will be a good, wearable kilt. If you think of it as just practicing the only result will be a bunch of fabric, that you paid for, that you can't even wear. Using practice fabric is actually a waste of your good, hard earned money.

The stitching is just one part of the whole. There is the proper basting and pressing. (Again, good kilt wool will take and hold a crease far easier and better than anything else).
Then there is the internal construction. Getting that right is something you just have to do with your hands and eyes. Hand and eye coordination is what you learn most of all in kiltmaking.

This is why those of us who have done it always seem to give the same advice. Over the entire process you will improve your stitching with every pleat. By the time you finish your first, you will be experienced enough to know where you made errors and be ready to start your second, better kilt, while you enjoy wearing your first.

If you had spent good money on practice fabric you have just wasted your money on something that you will never wear.