Hammer Kilt for Dan McKim

[Alan H]

Quite a while ago, now I promised Dan McKim a kilt. Now, Dan is a very nice guy, is very sincere and open about his religious life, and is generally just a good dude. He also happens to be the 2010 and 2011 Heavy Athletics World Champion.....and I consider him to be a friend.

Well, the kilt that he's wearing nowadays is a sadly much-abused Stillwater that no longer deserves the word "pleats". I mean, this thing is trashed. So I told Dan I'd make him a kilt. He wanted it in the Fraser tartan. Well, there's a Fraser, Hunting in Polyester Viscose so that's what I went with.

Here's the thing.... I ordered 3 yards, since my usual way of making kilts for athletes is a 6 yard kilt.. However, this was obviously the end of the bolt, and one side of the fabric, the last 8-10 inches, was defaced by a marking pen listing what cloth it was so that the stock person at Scotweb could find it. So what Scotweb did was send me about 4 1/3 yards for the price of 3 yards. Whoah. So Dan is getting a full-on, "8 yard "/ 32 pleats kilt in the Fraser tartan.

This is pushing the edges of what works, I think, with just top-sewing pleats in polyester viscose. There's a bit too much mass in the fell area. I don't think it's a problem with a 6 yard, but it's kind of at the limit with an 8 yard. I want to top-stitch it with a machine since that's by far the strongest way to make a kilt like this, WAY stronger than hand-stitching and Dan, being who he is, and considering what he does, is brutally abusive to his kilts.

This must be quite old PV, because the selvedged edge is the "fringy" stuff that USA kilts used to make their PV kilts from, but recently Marton Mills seems to be producing PV with a nicer edge. Hmmm. Upshot was, I had to hem it....totally irrelevant for a throwing/pubbing kilt, but maybe not quite right for a fancy kilt to wear to the Saint Andrews Society Ball.

My pleating was pretty good, actually. It's not perfect, I could align things a bit better if I hand-sewed it, but this isn't bad. It's hella-beefy though. All that's left to do is the tartan waistband and then the leathers.

I'm giving it to Dan at the Portland Highland Games on Saturday, so I'll be busy at my machine on Wednesday night. Pictures after Portland!

Oh, "Hammer Kilts" is a moniker I made up for kilts that I make for athletes. It's not a business, I don't sell them for $$, they're gifts.