Best material, in your experience, for work kilt

[Improv1]

Hello rabble! I am looking at getting a work kilt, and want one that will:

• Be suitable for cutting the lawn, working in the shop, getting sweat and dirt on it.
• Will hold its pleats.
• Is reasonably easy to keep looking good.

All of my kilts are dress quality, and I try not to get them too messy (a pint splash, sweat from dancing, rain) and they are holding up well. I just don't want to spend a lot of money on an 8 yard wool for work.
Thanks in advance!

[Tobus]

Are you talking about tartan material, or "other" material?

[The Wizard of BC]

I would guess that over the past 14 years I have tried just about every fabric I could get my hands on.

I assume by work kilt, that you are asking about non-Tartan fabrics so I will leave those until last.

I would rate the absolute worse fabric that I have ever worked with to be a light nylon similar to that used in boxing ring shorts. Far too light weight and revealing. And never, ever allow it to get wet. It becomes transparent.

Second worse in my opinion would be leather. It is heavy and requires a special sewing machine with a walking foot to sew it. Once you put a needle hole in, it is there to stay. It requires special cleaning methods. Leather is stiff and does not swish well at all.

Third worse would be 100% cotton fabrics. This includes cotton prints like Camo that have the design only on one side. Cotton is a unique fabric. It continues to shrink throughout its entire life. So a kilt made of cotton will shrink in length unless you stretch and iron it after each and every washing. Cotton wrinkles just by looking at it and it will not hold a crease so every pleat must be edge stitched inside and out.
Included in this are denim. Today I refuse to make a kilt from denim after one customer who did not want to iron his kilt thinking, that like his denim jeans, would form fit to his body. Well, it did try to form fit. By shrinking. Until the pleats were short enough that their own weight would no longer pull the pleats down and the entire kilt stuck out like a ballet tutu.
The cotton fabrics also include the 'Carrhart' style of duck canvas. I have some that came off the exact same looms that produce the Carrhart brand fabrics. Yes, this fabric wears like iron but unlike carpenters coveralls that have legs inside to stretch the fabric back out, it will wrinkle and shrink just like denim. I had one customer who washed and dried his kilt, with a dozen hard rubber dryer balls, over 100 times in a vain attempt to get a duck canvas kilt to take on the softness of his beloved Carrhart coveralls.

Of all the solid colored fabrics that I have used, the best would probably be a Polyester and Cotton blend fabric similar to that used for "Dockers" brand slacks. This fabric is wrinkle resistant due to the 65% Polyester content. It machine washes and dries well and is fairly color fading resistant. But this fabric must still be edge stitched like cotton and will not take the compound curves that are necessary to an Iconic wool kilt to take its famous shape.

If you want to have a Tartan kilt that is not wool may I suggest you take a look at the Polyester/Rayon blends offered by the UK weaver "Marton Mills". This is the fabric which is used by myself and USA Kilts. This fabric is known in the UK as P/V. Short for Polyester/Viscose with Viscose being the British term for Rayon.

This name P/V was quickly adopted by the Sailkot, Pakistani makers to mean almost any synthetic fabric. It is quite common to see the term P/V used for Acrylic and Acrylic blends where there in no Polyester or Rayon at all.

I have been very happy with the Poly/Rayon fabrics and use it exclusively in my rental fleet. Rental kilts go through more abuse, in a shorter time, than almost any other kilts. I have some of my rentals that have been rented, and then machine washed and dried over 50 times, and they look as good today as the day they were made. They have not been touched by an iron since the day they were made and the pleat creases are as sharp and the fabric as wrinkle free as the day they were made.

If you want a solid colored work kilt my choice would be a 13oz 65% Polyester/ 35% cotton - "Dockers" pants fabric.
If you want a Tartan work kilt my choice would be "Marton Mills" 12oz Polyester/35% Rayon blends.

[Tobus]

Steve, does Marton Mills make any solid-colour PV twill fabrics similar to their tartan ones? If so, would that be your preference over the Dockers type material if making a solid-colour kilt? Or do you think the Dockers type material is better?
@Improv1, I had a PV casual kilt from USA Kilts at one time (Marton Mills material), and the material was indeed very easy to care for. It ticked off all of your critera: it handled dirt and sweat just fine, and was machine washable. The pleats on this one were stitched at the folds, but I know that other PV kilts are not, and they hold their pleats well. Wrinkling didn't seem to be an issue, to my recollection. I sold it because I wanted to move into higher-yardage wool kilts. But if I were looking for another knockabout kilt that would resist stains and such, I'd absolutely go back to a PV kilt (I still prefer more than 4 yards, though). I know USA Kilts has options in higher-yardage PV kilts, and Steve does too.

[Geoff Withnell]

Tobus,
The MM PV is available in at least solid green and saffron colors, I have USAK kilts those materials. I think black is also available.

[Taj]

You don't state what kind of work. For any hot work stay away from synthetics. They will ignight and melt to your skin. Same for electrical work. A professional electrician already knows this, as well as knowing NFPA 70E, and wouldn't wear a kilt. A home owner might not know. Just be careful the garment is appropriate to the work.

Edit: you did mention lawn, but general home shop could involve a variety of tasks.

[Liam]

My suggestion is to wear any kilt and wear an apron over it when working.

[Improv1]

Thanks Steve,
Sage advice as always!