Best Fabric for a Highland Games Kilt?

[Blupiper]

Branwyn:

I now compete only in the piping comps, but a few years ago tried my hand at the heavy athletics. I tried both PV's and acrylics from a number of makers and found that they are both good substitutes for wool and a lot easier to clean and manage. The costs are less, there are many makers for off the peg or bespoke options and you can probably find a tartan which appeals to you. An added bonus: you will look better than those guys who arrive with a tablecloth wrapped around their waist. Better bragging rights in the Beer Tent later, too.

JMB

[EagleJCS]

If your intended is a member of the Clan Scott Society, there may be a vendor offering a Clan Scott discount on material.

If he's not a member, membership isn't very expensive and then you can check into the available discounts.

It may be worth investigating anyway.

[RockyR]

Scott Green Weathered is available in PV:
http://www.usakilts.com/gallery/12-o...cott-weathered

[Alan H]

Heavyweight wool is lovely. I own several 13 and 16 ounce wool tartan kilts. But at the Games, I compete in Polyester viscose.

Now, guys who only watch the Heavies from a safe distance will tell you "there's nothing like wool".. and "wool isn't really hot" and so on. Yeah, well, they're right. Wool is "nicer". HOWEVER, swing and heft are not the only parameters to consider, here.

Do you know what pine tar is? It's tree sap. It's sticky as $%^&*( and we put it on our hands to help with gripping hammer handles and cabers. Even if your husband doesn't use pine tar, the guy right before him in the rotation will, and then he'll get pine tar on his hands. Sometimes, some guys don't use pine tar, they use spray-on 3M adhesive. That will get all over the hammer handle or the D-handle for the weight or whatever. Then your husband wipes his sweaty face with his hands and then dries them on the beautiful wool kilt that you just spent all that time stitching up for him.





Y'all think about that. Because you see, two hours before that, he ground chalk into his hands to help with the release in the stone throw, and THAT stuff is all over the kilt, too.



So...which do you want him wearing? The nice wool kilt that you spent $80 a yard on the material to make that lovely 8 yard kilt?----- or a 6-yard polyester-viscose kilt that happens to have a teflon coating on the fabric so that you can literally put the kilt in the washing machine and Pine Tar will wash out?

This is not the time/place to listen too closely to the kilt purists or the guys who've never taken the time to make their own kilt and don't understand at a personal level how much work it is. There ARE times and places and kilt decisions in which those people have good opinions, but IMHO this isn't one of them.

Honestly, the ultimate throwing kilt, IMHO is the USA Kilts casual model. It goes on and off with velcro, just like the SportKilt. Yet it has actual pleats that look good (unlike the SportKilt basic model). It's a great combination. The stuff is machine-washable. The colors stay bright.

Once, a few years agoI considered starting up a cottage industry making kilts JUST for HG athletes. My version of the athletes kilt closed with two buckles, but my intent was to make a kilt that could both take the ripping stresses that come from setting up a caber toss AND look good enough to wear to the pub with kilt snobs. I was going to use polyester-viscose. For athletes, it's the best stuff, hands-down.

[Alan H]

The answer is...make two kilts. One is a throwing kilt for the Games. He can also wear it hiking and so on. The other one is the really nice 13 or 16 ounce wool job for more dressy occasions.

BTW, I wore my weathered MacNaughton polyester viscose kilt at the Games in Scotland when I was there in 2014 and nobody batted an eye. I showed it to our resident Scottish Curmudgeon, Jock Scot and until I told him it wasn't wool, he hadn't a clue.

BTW, Dan McKim, the current World Champion (depending on which Championship you decide is the "actual" World Championship) wears a kilt that I made him. It's 8 yards of 11 ounce polyester-viscose.

IMHO opinion, it's too heavy. Dan is SO strong that it doesn't matter. However, the kilt that I made in 2013 for then-HG world hammer champion, Mike Pockoski is just about perfect. It was six yards of machine-sewn polyester-viscose from Marton Mills in the Holyrood tartan. I made it with two, not three outrageously strong leather buckles/straps. If you make one, leave off the third strap, the one that sits on the wearers right hip. That won't even last a season of throwing, it will tear out, I guarantee it. I'd have made it with velcro, but I didn't want to infringe too closely on Rocky's design.

Dan McKims kilt -





Mike Pockoski's Kilt -

[Alan H]

Again, for the least amount of hassle for the best look, the USA Kilts casual model is The Ticket for a throwing kilt, IMHO.

After wearing PV kilts on the field for several years and inspecting literally dozens of non-sportkilt athletes kilts, my "ideal" kilt for a highland athlete...as made by me, and worn by Mike Pockoski (former world hammer champion and 2x in the top-3 at the World Championships), Summier Pierson (former womens world champion) and Stacy, aka "good girl gone plaid" here on XMTS (not the womens world champion), looks like this.

6 yards of machine sewn...topstitch sewn-down pleats. I didn't cut out the pleats. It's not THAT heavy or bulky when there's only 6 yards. It IS bulky and heavy when there's 8 yards. 6 yards of the Marton Mills PV will result in the kilt having 22-26 pleats, depending somewhat on the size of the athlete and the size of the sett, and whether it's pleated to sett or stripe. This is enough to look like a "real kilt" to 99% of the crowd, even the more knowledgeable ones, without having the weight of a "real kilt".

*Seriously* reinforced waistband. I put a 1.5 inch wide strip of canvas inside the waistband and hand-stitched the straps and buckles to this strip. It's enclosed in the usual folded-over tartan waistband.

Lining is optional. The guys are going to be wearing compression shorts, or something like that under the kilt so they don't flash the crowd. I used to put in a light cotton-poly lining that was stitched directly into the waistband and "floated" at the bottom and sides. I didn't want some violent movement to rip it out.

Leather straps and SOLID buckles. I bought strong 1.5 inch buckles from Tandy Leather. Make the straps LONG...like a foot long. Hand-stitch at least 6 inches of it, very solidly into the waistband with carpet thread. I punch holes in the leather straps to make sewing them in, easier. On the right waist, I made the buckle strap out of tartan, but inside it is a layer of canvas to reinforce it. That is bar-tacked VERY solidly into the waistband and the inner waistband reinforcing strip. I used Matt Newsomes technique of putting the buckle / strap that lies on the wearers left waist INSIDE the kilt...no holes punched in the kilt.

No third buckle on the wearers right hip. It will tear out, I guarantee it. I cannot tell you the number of nice wool three-buckle kilts I have seen, worn by Pro's in the Games where that buckle and strap is completely ripped out of the kilt, destroying the underlying material.

The fold-back on the over-apron that allows you to make the over-apron fringe...I made it pretty wide, to add a bit of weight. No athlete with any sense will wear a kilt pin while competing, and so it helps to have some little bit of extra weight there. I used to make mine with a double-fringe, and topstitch-down the right-hand apron edge.

Little hint...the fell will be 8-inches, more or less. That's what it usually works out to be for most adult men. Well, stitch down the first two pleats on both sides, just down 6 or 6 1/2 inches. You can stitch the rest of the fell down to 8 inches. Why do this? Because athletes spend a lot of time semi-crouched down in the "power position" from which they explode upwards and outwards in order to throw the implements. That puts a strong crease right at the tops of the thighs. On a kilt that crease will land just above the bottom of the fell. If you don't stitch the first two pleats on each side, down all the way, it imparts a little bit of "give" right at the point of maximum stress. The stitching will last longer.

Good luck, and enjoy!

[eclarkhb]

Great posts, all.

As another thrower, I'll pile on to what Allan has stated above. I have a 16-oz wool kilt & I have a couple of PV kilts, and I would HATE to get the tar on my wool kilt. The wool kilt was expensive, I'd like to keep it looking special. The PV one I can throw in the wash.

When I compete, it is in a USA Kilts "Casual Kilt", made out of PV, Clan Campbell tartan. I also have a SportKilt, with elastic band. I've run a 5k in the SportKilt before, but I prefer the USA Casual Kilt for Highland Games, because it looks more like a "real kilt".

Another tip I would add is that I prefer the traditional waist of my USA Kilt, because I wear a think weight belt for many of the throwing events, and it fits perfectly on top of the kilt & keeps everything in place.

Here are some pictures of me throwing in this kilt, so you can see what it looks like in action: