Hand Tailored

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Sorry if I wasn't clear. What I meant is that however skilled a hand-sewer, the individual stitches done with a single needle and thread will never have the linear precision that a machined line of stitches does. My point was that this slight uneven quality can be a good or a bad thing in the eye of the beholder, almost like comparing a painting with a photograph. Each is better in its own way. Does that make sense?

Nick, what you say makes perfect sense, at least to me. I prefer the hand sewn kilt because the stitches don't all have the same tension-- this means that the kilt eventually "shapes" just a tad bit better to the way I wear it. At least, that's what I tell myself, based on how my jackets and suits fit after they've "worn in". There is another intangible in the "bespoke" hand sewn garment that in my mind, at least, makes it worth the extra bucks. It is the feeling that someone actually made this for me, using their own two hands and a single needle and thread.

I believe in rewarding people who have skills and talents not found in the mainstream, like kilt makers, and so I'm willing (and thankfully able) to pay that "bit extra" to keep those skills and traditions alive and hopefully passed on to future generations of enthusiastic eccentrics, like me.