Thank you Steve and Barbara,

With the margins available, given the cost of goods sold that you mentioned (even at wholesale prices), hand-stitched kiltmaking seems to be more of a public service than an income. The competition and threat of lower quality machine-stitched garments is now much more apparent to me than I realised.

I will shop around for a basic twill for my first project.

I am so grateful that there are people like you who keep the art alive.