Should I or not?
I have a beautiful hand-sewn kilt that Ada Langley made for me about 12 years ago. At the time, it had probably been a good 9 or 10 years since I had last had or worn a kilt and for some reason I had her make it with the drop to mid-knee cap. We talked over the phone, so I didn't have the opportunity to have her measure me. We did discuss length and I think she had commented that I did not want to go below that length. After I received it I realized that I really preferred wearing it to the top of the knee cap, a difference of 1.5". This really hasn't been a problem as I just wear the the kilt under my ribs, essentially with a military rise at 3.5", which actually was the way I had worn previous band kilts. When I had Matt Newsome make my other kilt, I of course went with the shorter drop and a higher rise and that one fits like it is supposed to with the strap at my natural waist.
While the "tank" actually stays in place most of the time, occasionally I have to hike it up a little due to gravity. The fit at the fell is the same without any perceptible difference regardless of where it is hanging. I started to think, why don't I have the straps and buckles moved down that 1.5"? I emailed Ada and she is certainly willing to do that. Now I'm starting to have second thoughts and wondering if it is really worth fixing something that isn't really broken.
I know I ultimately have to decide this myself but thought I would see what others thought at XMTS. Has anybody had this type of alteration done? One of the things I started thinking is that at some point I will probably be handing this kilt down to my son who's a couple of inches taller than me. I guess he could ultimately have another alteration done at some point if he wanted to, as we're not talking about cutting any material out here. I also am on a plan to shave off some pounds again and doubt I'll move below the couple of inches I have left on the strap but if I did, that would become a necessity for alteration and guess I could do it all at once then if I still wanted to.
I'm probably just obsessing at this point but appreciate the opportunity to bounce this off you.
Ken
"The best things written about the bagpipe are written on five lines of the great staff" - Pipe Major Donald MacLeod, MBE