Kilt Apron--velcro instead of kilt pin?

[Dixieman]

I would like to buy a made to measure, tartan kilt. I am curious about the kilt apron. I see that the kilt forms a double apron by wrapping around from your left hip and that the top apron stops short of your right hip. And that a kilt pin will be put on the lower right corner of the double apron to prevent wind from lifting it up.

I was wondering if I could ask any kiltmakers or tailors could sew a velcro strip at the bottom right corner in lieu of the kilt pin. Perhaps a strip of velcro running down the right edge of the upper apron, fastening it the bottom apron. I'd get a polyviscose, semi-casual tartan kilt, so I'm not too concerned with being 100% traditional, but don't want to go all the way to wearing a utilikilt.

[Father Bill]

Hi.

The pin is merely jewellery. It serves no actuial function. With the double apron, you’ll only be ‘exposed’ if you’re out in a hurricane. Skip the velcro - it would only pull and undo, possibly tear when you walk.

[Jock Scot]

You are worrying too much. I am in my 8th decade of wearing the kilt in all weathers and I have only had two "Marilyn moments" when wearing the kilt. Both were during extreme(rare) weather conditions. In those conditions all the velcro and all the kilt pins in the world would not have helped!

[FossilHunter]

As has been mentioned, don’t sweat it.

I’ve yet to see a kilt pin heavy enough to hold down fabric in a heavy wind. Any pin heavy enough to do that would probably start pulling the fabric where it was attached anyway.

[Holcombe Thomas]

Perhaps it's helpful to note that the kilt pin doesn't pin the apron to the under-apron. That's a sure way to tear your kilt. Rather, the kilt pin is pinned only to the top apron.

Holcombe

[MichiganKyle]

I usually wear kilt pins on my casual kilts. I consider them functional items - the fabric is just very light, and it adds some extra weight. Not due to risk of the front blowing open, which is nearly impossible with the inner apron anyway, but so that the outer layer hangs nicer in wind. And because I think they look cool.

That said, I don't usually wear a kilt pin on my USA Kilts semi-trad. The outer apron edge is heavy enough that it doesn't need it.

Oh, and the kilt pin only goes through the outer apron. You can still quite readily flip the entire front apron up with a kilt pin. But it's really not necessary for modesty at any rate - you're far more vulnerable to the back pleats parachuting up than the front aprons, in my experience.

[OC Richard]

There was a thread here a while back, which I found absurd, about making uber-heavy kilt pins to hold down the kilt and even sewing lead weights into the hem of the kilt to keep it down!

I can't recall but I assume somebody mention that kilts don't have hems.

That being said I did have one time when my kilt was blowing around. We have strong "Santa Ana" winds here a couple times a year. They blow strongest through the mountain passes and canyons.

It so happens that somebody decided to build a cemetery right in the middle of one of the windiest passes, and at the height of the Santa Ana winds they hired me to pipe at a service.

The wind was so strong that I couldn't play the pipes while standing up! I had to lean back against a statue with my legs spread wide to achieve a stable 3-point stance.

I had wisely worn my long heavy goathair sporran which held the kilt down (when piping both your hands are occupied!)

[Arnot]

...sewing lead weights into the hem of the kilt to keep it down!

As a kiltmaker, I have been asked if I do this.

[12stones]

We have strong "Santa Ana" winds here a couple times a year. They blow strongest through the mountain passes and canyons.

Having recently moved across the street from Lake Erie, I'm amazed at the winds that come off the lake and am now going to have to seriously consider how I'll handle them while kilted. I mean, sometimes I'm worried about these winds taking trees out...

[Me cousin Jack]

I personally wouldn’t want Velcro anywhere near a bespoke woven anything. Velcro has little hooks that would act like hundreds of tiny crochet needles and could leave one with something likened to a cats scratching post.