How are costs kept so low?

[Michael A]

Hi all,

I am working through Barbara's excellent book and contemplating making my first kilt. Like the formal courses, I will start with a children's kilt.

I do have one question to start with though (no doubt many more to follow). Having looked at the cost of fabric at most major Scottish retailers, including this site's Scotweb (as well as Kinloch Anderson and Lochcarron), and all the 16Oz fabrics I can find sell for £65/metre (double width) or about £58/yard. I know it's double width, so I have two questions. Firstly, does one cut or tear the double length to achieve the required the yardage (and splice in the middle of the pleats), and given the cost of fabric, when labour and buckles are added, how on earth can a kilt cost so little? I paid AUD$670 for an 8 yard hand-stitched kilt from Australia's last full-time kiltmaker (who I can name if asked, but I don't want to look like promoting non-advertisers per se). It is a masterpiece and my best kilt, but it seems like I paid less for the entire kilt than it would cost me to buy the fabric (it's Lochcarron strome), even with the current drop in the pound sterling.

Is there some kind of wholesale deal people have access to? If the fabric costs more than a new kilt, what do beginning kiltmaking hobbyists do?

[The Wizard of BC]

As a kiltmaker we buy fabric direct from the weavers. We pay wholesale prices.

The prices you give are premium retail prices.

And yes, as you see in the book, we buy 4 yards of double-width fabric. We split it down the middle, join, and produce one 8 yard length.

[Barb T]

Ditto to what Steve says. But beyond this, kiltmakers don't make a lot of money on labor, especially if they are jobbing kilts to a vendor. If you order through a Highland shop, that shop-owner has to contract with a kiltmaker, and the shop owner marks up what the kiltmaker charged him/her in order to also make money on the transaction.

I sew pretty fast (ask Steve), but I can't make a proper, top quality kilt in much less than 18 hours. I know kiltmakers who claim they make kilts in 10 hours, but I frankly don't see how it can be done without short-cutting somewhere and not putting in all of the interior construction that I put in and that I consider part of a proper kilt that will last for decades. Wholesale prices range a lot from mill to mill, but let's say an average of $200 (some are higher and some are lower) for a kilt length if you're buying from the US and also paying shipping for the tartan. 670 Australian dollars is about $500 US dollars. If you ordered the kilt directly from the kiltmaker, the kilmaker paid for the tartan plus buckles, straps, lining, and canvas plus shipping the kilt to you (let's say that totaled $260), he/she only made $240 on labor. That's $13 an hour, folks. If the kilt was purchased through a vendor, the kiltmaker made less than that. I know kiltmakers who job out kilts for under $200/kilt, or perilously close to minimum wage. If you were skilled at something, would you accept minimum wage??

So, yes, kilts are expensive, but they are, in fact, cheaper than they ought to be given the skilled labor that goes into a kilt.

[Michael A]

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.

[Barb T]

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

If you wouldn't mine a suggestion, if you're going to make a hand stitched kilt by the instructions in the book, twill is one of the hardest fabrics you could choose. I always recommend that first time kiltmakers use the best quality kilting tartan you can afford for your first kilt. It is MUCH easier to make a kilt from that than any other fabric.

[Michael A]

Thanks Barb, I am showing loud and clear here that I have not yet finished reading through the book

I thought twill was just the weaving pattern used in kiltmaking fabric that was not plain weave (page 29) but I see that the term must have a more specific meaning.

I am looking around at the various mills for a good 16Oz kilting fabric.

Thanks again.

[Barb T]

Oh - my bad. Yes, twill IS a weave, and kilting tartan is a twill weave. I assumed that you meant something like a cotton twill - that's what many people think they'll use for a "practice" kilt.

Any wool twill would be better than anything cotton or even a wool plain weave (which is not as "shape-able" as wool twill weave!

[The Wizard of BC]

I'm going to second Barb's comment. I have made a lot of kilts from Polyester/Cotton blend fabrics and 100% cotton fabrics. These are usually much better machine sewn.

Most of these fabrics do not hand stitch easily. As Barb pointed out they also do not mold into complex curves like wool. They also need to be edge stitched as Cotton will not hold a crease.

So yes, Twill is a weave. Blue jean fabric is a twill weave but does not make a very nice kilt at all.

So if you plan to make a kilt following TAoK I would strongly suggest that you look at the best quality kilt fabric you can find and afford. Look at fabrics with a kilt selvedge edge and 13 or 16 oz wool.

Believe me, experience has proven over and over that the result will be far better than something cheap from your local fabric store. I know that it is counter-intuitive but good kilt fabric is actually easier to sew, and sew well, than almost anything else.

One thing I try to point out is that if you make something with "Practice fabric" in the end you have a practice kilt. If you get good fabric to start with, and follow the book, the chances are that you will end up with something you can be proud to wear.

[Michael A]

The things one misses, until reading a book on how it is supposed to be done. This is my hand-stitched Strome Ferguson. I must say, I'm a bit annoyed now, because I notice it every time I put it on.

[Barb T]

Hmmmm, yes. Horizontal stair-steps, stripes not centered (as Grizzled Ian said at Kilt Kamp a couple years ago - "That stripe wanders around like a cow in India!!!")....When you make your own kilt and pay attention to those details, you'll have a better-looking kilt!!!