Kilt Length

[Barb T]

Barb, can you tell me why kiltmakers ask for height when requesting measurements?

I always ask, just so that I can see if there is anything that seems a little odd. If someone gave me a length of 21" and said he was 6'3", it would be outside the norm. Ditto 25" and someone who is 5'8". The measurements might be right, but they are atypical enough that it would raise a reg flag with me.

Having said all this, I always always double-check length with a customer, even when the length/height seems more or less "normal". Sometimes I'll Skype with someone to watch how they do the measuring. You have no idea how many times I send out very specific measuring instructions and someone just measures either the way they've measured before or the way they think they ought to be measuring. If I went with the initial length measurements that people send me, about 1/3 of the kilts I've made would have been the wrong length. The only way to avoid that kind of catastrophe is either to measure the person yourself (which, for most of my orders is impossible) or pester the person about how, exactly, he/she made the measurement!