Non-Scottish tartan question

[philbo]

I like the tartan, very nice. Great to see your lads in a kilt too.
No offense, but why do you wear the kilt so long? Our robbie may have something to say about that

I'd like to say that there's an anotomical reason behind the length, but alas, the truth is that it just happens to hang that way, and I'm not sure how to shorten it, aside from cutting the fabric. Personally, I prefer such length on some of our colder days.

[John in Texas]

Philbo,
I dont know where you hail from originally, (place of birth) but if it's the South, there is a great looking "Confederate Memorial Tartan" which you could adopt, and some states, such as Texas & Colorado have tartans too.Easily adoptable. You could tell your offspring, "This is our tartan, as we come from_________". Just a thought.

[Colin]

Hey y'all, I finally got some pictures uploaded so if anyone wanted to see what I chose for my family tartan, you can check out my album now. There's also a picture of my kilted kids in there too. Thanks again everyone for your assistance in this matter.

Great pictures Philbo. Your boys look awesome in their kilts. I've got a few of my son in my album as well. I think the kids will be the driving force for the future in this world of video games and baggy jeans. Let's tech them how great kilts are.

[richardljohnson]

Great Pic's...


RLJ-

[philbo]

John from Texas, thanks for the info. Unfortunately, my birthplace (Wisconsin) is unlikely to have such ties to confederate tartans. The closest I managed with the tartan that I chose was its similarity in color to a norwegian sweater that was made in the hometown of my ancestors. The sweater and the kilt don't really go together that well, but at least they're the same color.

[Casey]

Philbo,

In my surfing of the net I have found a number of tartans that are of a State, military and USA tartans you could use. I'm not sure about Montana. If you want to look to the north of Montana there are tartans for Canada, Alberta & Saskatchewan (My home province).

There is also a site with an interactive weaver. I have played with this and found it interesting, but I imagine that it would be pricy.

Take a look around and see what you can find. If you don't find any of these sites, let me know and I will send you the links. I would do it now but I'm not at my home computer.

Good luck

Casey

[ScottishKilts]

TFCK made a tartan "thisle dubh" (this'll do) it's made for anyone to wear, made for their hire business.

phil h,

"Thistle Dubh" will mean "Black Thistle". After all "Sgian Dubh" means "Black Knife" 8)

Kilts such as the Black Watch, Scottish National, Flower of Scotland Royal Stewart, Thistle Dubh/Black Thistle, Scottish American and Irish American are all generic. The latter two are very nice indeed.

There is also an American National tartan, but this is extremely difficult to source and when it is made up by the mills, it's not of good quality.

All those prices above quoted for registering a tartan and having a kilt made-up are quite expensive! I don't want to steal anyone's thunder, but ScottishKilts.net's maximum price for registering the tartan (with the Tartan Registry) and having a full weight kilt made-up in it is £650 (approx. $1150USD). Even less if you design the tartan yourself and even less if you make the kilt up yourself. Minimum cost is £350.


--incidentally, tartandesigner.co.uk is another of our websites. We keep churning them out

[philbo]

So... what are the consequences if I don't register the tartan?

[ScottishKilts]

Sorry for taking a while to get back to you - I wasn't ignoring it!

There are no real consequences by not officially registering your tartan.

The only thing that could happen is that someone else registers your tartan - the colours and thread count etc. It would be a bit annoying if this happened I suspect.

You could obviously still wear the tartan, but it could be a tongue-twister or obviously unrelated to you. For instance Mr Tang Tai Zong registered it, the second question on peoples lips after asking what tartan it is would be to enquire if you're of Chinese decendancy Queue long story about how you created it first...

It is really up to the individual to decide if it means enough to them.

Over the last year, people registering tartans have mostly been from businesses - not for themselves.

[philbo]

For now I'll take my chances and keep the selected tartan unregistered. It's not likely that I'm going to randomly run into anyone else wearing it. I just hope someday to hear my children say "I am a braveheart, like my father before me."