Strap hole? What strap hole?

[Tony Robbie]

Thank you all for your amazing help. I'll let you know how I travel.
I'll apologise now that my responses haven't been swift, but I live in the hills of southern Tasmania, and we're still on dial-up internet connection. It takes a long time to reload pages and download pictures and pdfs. I really appreciate the input. Cheers. Tony.

[Barb T]

And honestly?? I've made A LOT of kilts, and every once in awhile, I forget to put in the buttonhole. If the person I'm making the kilt for is OK with an interior buckle and strap combo, I do that . If the person wants a buttonhole, it doesn't require taking out all the pleats I've done. All I do is slit the inside fold of the offending pleat so that I can get my fingers in (you're going to cut out the pleats eventually anyway, so the slit doesn't matter), pick out about 3" of the pleat from the top down, and restitch it with the buttonhole.

If you've forgotten to put in the canvas or put the buttonhole in the wrong pleat, (just did that yesterday, as a matter of fact, when I wasn't paying attention...), you might have to take out the top of two pleats instead of one, but it's not time-consuming.

[Tony Robbie]

I am SO glad you said that, Barb. As a newbie you make stupid mistakes, and being really keen to get into the fabric, I blundered blindly on. The experienced kiltmakers make mistakes?? I should hope so!
But since they're your instructions I'm following, Barb, if you say "internal strap", then I know it's safe to proceed. Thanks.

[Barb T]

One of the great things about traditional kiltmaking is that there are only two points in the entire process where you can't recover an error.

• The first is when you determine the length that the kilt is going to be and cut the tartan to the length of the kilt. If you've cut it too short, there's nothing you can do about it. And yes, I did that once as well. Just once, though....you have no idea how careful I've been since THAT little blunder....

• The second is when you cut out the pleats. It's possible to ruin the kilt by cutting badly (e.g., cutting too close to the pleat stitching or cutting too close to, or even below, the bottom of the fell) or making it difficult/impossible to alter later (e.g., inadvertently cutting out the deep pleat under the apron or the inverted pleat under the underapron). Also, once the pleats are cut out, you're committed to the pleating and to the waist and hip measurement across the pleats. Just last year, I pleated an entire kilt, cut out the pleats, and then really critically looked at the pleating and decided I should have made different choices about where I put the pleats when I pleated it to the sett. Nothing I could do about it except buy a new length of tartan and start over. I did eventually cut the entire pleated section off and used the narrow unpleated part to make a kilt for a 4-year-old whose mother was in the pipe band. The little tyke is thrilled with a kilt that matches her mommy's, so all's well that ends well, but.....

So, morals of these stories are 1) measure 16X and cut once when you're getting the tartan to the right length. And I even cut just an inch snip at the right length and measure a few more times just to make sure before I commit to cutting the whole piece. 2) check to make sure that everything is good after you stitched the pleats before you cut out the pleats. Check the apron and underapron measurements and shaping, measure across the back at the waist and hips, look at the pleats with a critical eye and make sure they are perfect. That's the time to fix any issues. And last, 3) be really careful when you cut out the pleats. I always make sure I'm not distracted when I'm cutting out pleats, and I check before every cut to make sure it's going to be in the right place. And my husband says he can't even watch the process....

After cutting out the pleats, there's literally nothing else in the whole process that you can't pick out and re-do if you don't like how it's come out.

[The Wizard of BC]

I have never made a mistake.

Not once, not ever.


I have had about a gazillion "learning experiences" though.

A mistake is when you have one of those pesky and inevitable learning experiences and you throw up your hands and quit. When you let that experience become the end of learning.

Steve Ashton - THCCK 2014

[WillowEstate]

Do you even need the left strap? My military MacKenzie doesn't have one - the inner apron is held up by the pressure oif the outer apron. I've never had it slip. The cloth is the military 22 ounce heavy wool, which may make a difference.

[Barb T]

I did an interior buckle and strap for a guy who hated it once he had the kilt because the buckle dug into his hip bone. I'm a bit bemused by his comment, because, if he was wearing his kilt high enough, it shouldn't have been on his hip bone, but... He just just took the interior buckle and strap off and was happy as a clam with only the one exterior buckle and strap.

I think it depends on how well your kilt fits and how much you move around. We have people in our band whose kilts don't fit particularly well (inherited from band stock, yada yada), and their underaprons are always sagging out from under the bottom of the apron even though they have an underapron strap and buckle.

[Allan Thomson]

I recollect that one of the two kilts I wore in my younger days (I think it was my first one) didn't have the left hand buckle and just relied on the pressure of the overlapping apron to keep the under apron in place. Both were kilts passed through the family, already of a good vintage when I recieved them, one being my first kilt, I can't remenber very much about it now, then as I grew taller I wore my father's ASH Phillabeg he had bought unissued from an army surplus shop when the regiment was going to be disbanded before it was reprieved and the phillabegs recalled. On the inside it had a label indicating it was a piper's kilt.

When I inherited my Grandfather's Hunting Thomson (woven and made for him) I remember being slightly suprised there was sporran belt loops as well - I'd never needed them before.

[Father Bill]

When I inherited my Grandfather's Hunting Thomson (woven and made for him) I remember being slightly suprised there was sporran belt loops as well - I'd never needed them before.

...and frankly, you still don't.

[Mike in Dayton]

I recollect that one of the two kilts I wore in my younger days (I think it was my first one) didn't have the left hand buckle and just relied on the pressure of the overlapping apron to keep the under apron in place. Both were kilts passed through the family, already of a good vintage when I recieved them, one being my first kilt, I can't remenber very much about it now, then as I grew taller I wore my father's ASH Phillabeg he had bought unissued from an army surplus shop when the regiment was going to be disbanded before it was reprieved and the phillabegs recalled. On the inside it had a label indicating it was a piper's kilt.

When I inherited my Grandfather's Hunting Thomson (woven and made for him) I remember being slightly suprised there was sporran belt loops as well - I'd never needed them before.

The first kilt I made in Kilt Kamp was made with the Earl of St. Andrews tartan. I never put the belt loops on the back. Sporran strap fits fine without them. It is on my "round-tuit" list to add the loops, but I probably never will. That kilt has become my main kilt in the winter.

I make all my kilts now without the button hole. Never an issue with feeling the internal buckle be it a high waist or jean waist kilt. I have heard others complain about the internal buckle but it has never been an issue with me. I tried the idea of no buckle at all. Just allow the tension of the outer apron to hold the inner. That never worked out well for me. The under apron would sooner or later start to drop.

Mike