puckered kilt front

[OC Richard]

Just saw this on Ebay.

It's an awful-looking kilt, to my eye.

The side near the fringe is all puckered. How does that happen?

The pleats appear to be considerably higher than the front panel.

And it's not just that, look at the sporran chain.

[The Q]

The Kilt is being worn by someone with a bigger backside than the kilt was designed for, hence the raised pleats

The puckering I would guess that several threads have been pulled at some point and are now trying to pull up that piece of cloth. The hem on the vertical edge also does not look quite right and may have been altered.

The Sporran chain has been shortened by clipping back the hook on the chain itself instead of tightening the belt at the back, (the sporran chain maybe way to long).

Overall a poor show....

[The Wizard of BC]

1) The kilt is in desperate need of a pressing. Just to the left of the fringe you can see what used to be a pleat. No crease left at all.
2) The kilt is way too small. Again, just left of the apron you can see about 4"of under apron showing.
3) This is a machine sewn kilt. To the right of the fringe you see the line of machine stitching where the facing is sewn down.
4) A guess only but this does not look like a wool kilt to me at all. The texture of the fabric face would make me guess acrylic.
5) The sporran is on using a buzz kidder like chain which has no belt in the back but is simply one long length of chain. Looping it back on itself is how you shorten it.
6) All of this would lead me to another guess about the front apron appearing lower. I will guess that this kilt is very short and being worn at low rise. Or was made for someone significantly shorter and smaller around than the current wearer. Perhaps when the wearer was younger.

I see almost every single one of these effects on an almost daily basis. This is usually when some guy comes in to my shop and says something like "I bought this on The Royal Mile a few years ago. I've grown a little bit. Can you alter it?" or "This was bought in Scotland for my brother. Can you make it fit me?"

[OC Richard]

some guy comes in to my shop and says something like "I bought this on The Royal Mile a few years ago. I've grown a little bit. Can you alter it?"

Hilarious! That's the kilt version of the bagpipe thing I get all the time:

"My wife bought these bagpipes for me on the Royal Mile in Eddinberg. How do they work?"

"I bought these bagpipes on Ebay for $200. Can you show me how to play them?"

(What I should say is "this is how to play them: Get a roaring fire going and throw them in. That crackling noise is the most musical sound they can ever make.")

BTW it's impressive, all the things you can see about construction and materials in just one photo. Pipes are like that to us pipers: one photo on Ebay is usually enough to tell us where the pipes were made, from what materials, and how the thing will sound.

Currently on Ebay, two bagpipes being sold by people who know nothing about bagpipes, so the descriptions are minimal and useless.

Exhibit 1:



Exhibit 2 (incorrectly listed as Lawrie bagpipes)