BTW... do the pleats hang straight at the back or do they curl? Just curious.

Good luck
On my 8yard wool the pleats hang down straight. On the Stillwater, I have to check every so often to make sure the pleats did not fold up and have to pull them down straight again.

For $100, I am not disappointed in the Stillwater Heavyweight. Unless somebody is inspecting the bottom edge of the kilt, no one is going to notice how the edge looks. It is not a nice crisp straight edge. It is also going to take some getting used to acrylic versus wool.