Confused About Measuring.

[Frank MacDuffy]

If you have very long legs (femur bones) or a high natural waist, that may account for it. However, I do think it's a bit long. I'm 5'11" and my length is 23.5". I would suggest not going longer than 24" or it the kilt may:

A. end up hanging below the knee
B. end up having to sit VERY high waisted at the top, making your torso appear short.

Hmm... Could I get an accurate measurement by standing in front of a floor length mirror with the tape hanging down to halfway up the kneecap and reading the measurement at the navel? I say floor length mirror meaning I can read the measurement in the mirror without bendind over.

[RockyR]

That could help...

[auld argonian]

Hmm... Could I get an accurate measurement by standing in front of a floor length mirror with the tape hanging down to halfway up the kneecap and reading the measurement at the navel? I say floor length mirror meaning I can read the measurement in the mirror without bendind over.

But you might encounter parallax error:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallax

...there must be somebody who can measure you while you stand up straight.

Best

AA

[RockyR]

If you make a small pen mark on your knee where you'd like the selvedge edge to sit and start the tape measure from that point you can measure that to the waist measurement.

One thing to remember as well... DON'T BEND OVER when you're measuring. You'll have to measure with your back straight. If you bend over to look at the tape while measuing, the measurement will be off (too short).

Make the mark on your knee and stand straight. for the length measurement, you can use a "stiff tape measure" (yard stick or retractable worker's tape measure). For a visual... imagine that your belly button was on the side of your body. Measure from an inch above that point to the mark on your knee... that will be the length.

Honestly, we're making this much more complicated than it needs to be.

[Colin]

Strange, I'm 5'10" and my measurements are for a 25" length! I hope I'm not messing that up, I've retaken my measurements over and over and over...

Wow, I am 6'4 and my kilt is a 24.5 including the rise and it is perfect.

[Canadian_Kilt]

That definately sounds long .. I'm 6'1 and 24" on the dot.

[turpin]

I really don't like the kneeling method. I have had good success measuring myself on kilt length using the following method. You have to do this looking into a mirror and standing up tall.

Tie a string or put a rubber band around your knee where you want the kilt to fall to. Holding the "0" end of a tape measure, pull it up through the string along your side (making sure the string doesn't move) to where you measured your waist (or in Rocky's example, where you want the top of the kilt to fall). You can then lean over and read the length at the string. Do this several times to make sure your readng is consistent.

[turpin]

Wow, I am 6'4 and my kilt is a 24.5 including the rise and it is perfect.

That's why I don't like the kneeling method. It tends to result in too long a measurement. I'm 6-0 and my total length is 24 to 24.5. Length from waist is 22.5.

[cavscout]

This is just one of those things that needs to be done by a second person or in a very accurate method. To even raise your shoulder slightly to try and measure yourself with a tape measure will alter the height of your waist a great deal. After all 1/2" is the difference between the top of the knee and mid-knee which gives the kilt a whole different look.

Go snag a pretty Co-ed and tell her your doing an experiment on the proportions of an average man versus a kilted man and have here take your measurements Who knows where that might lead

[The Wizard of BC]

Another trick to help you measure is to tape a yardstick to the corner of a wall or doorframe.
Then stand sideways to it and touch the yardstick at where you want the top of the waistband to sit. Write down the number.



Then lean down and do the same at where you want the hem to hit. Write down this number.



Then simply subtract the hem reading from the waist reading and voila, drop.

This is how we at Freedom Kilts do it and how we ask our customers to measure themselves.