Why hand-sewn?

[RockyR]

For one thing, in kiltmaking, the stitching of the fell can (and should!) look invisible with a handsewn, something that's impossible with a machine sewn garment. The pulling and skewing that comes with properly shaping a kilt can't really be done while using a machine. It would at least take the same amount of time and probably be more difficult with a machine.

I have to disagree with you there. You CAN machine sew a kilt (a mojority of it anyway) so that you don't see any stitches and taper it properly... When we sew our Premiers, we sew the pleats INSIDE OUT so that none of the stitches show. It's just takes a lot of time and pinning to get each pleat right. If you TOPSTITCH a kilt (like we do with our other models), you CAN see the stitching.

As per a discussion I had with Barb Tewksbury a couple weeks ago... it takes her about 20 hours or so to hand sew an 8 yard kilt. It takes us about the same ammount of time to machine and hand sew it so that you don't see any stitches.