Wool Quality

[KiltedBishop]

You take a clear shower curtain and wrap it around the kilt to protect it. Kind of like what my grandmother did with her furniture.

[Riverkilt]

Thanks Cyndi

Yummy stuff -

Ron

[M. A. C. Newsome]

So then, who here wears there wool kilt(s) on a regular basis and not just for formal events?

Well, I certainly do, nearly every day of the week. I wear the kilt every day I go in to work. That means 4 or 5 days a week, depending on my schedule. That's a normal work week -- if there is a Highland Games or a festival that weekend that I am attending, I may actually wind up wearing my kilt 10 or 12 days in a row. These are all woolen kilts.

I have owned kilts, over the years, in light weight, medium weight, and heavy weight wool. I have also owned a couple of canvas kilts, and for a brief time a kilt made from some kind of blend (can't remember now what it was). The blend kilt I only wore once, so I hesitate to say that I "owned" it. It was a free sample some company sent us who wanted us to carry their product. The construction of the kilt turned me off as much as anything, because the workmanship was crap. But I was interested in seeing how the material compared to wool, and, well, I just didn't like it.

I did own a couple of canvas kilts for a while. These are 10 oz per yard, army duck canvas kilts. I originally really liked them because they were very cool and comfortable, especially in the summer time, but heavy enough to stay in place. Ultimately, I stopped wearing those because of the construction -- they were machine stitched and off the rack, and just didn't fit as well as the other kilts in my wardrobe, so I found myself wearing them less and less until I sold them. Who knows, one day I might make myself a tailored kilt out of this kind of material for summer wear.

But all of the other kilts I have owned, and all of the kilts currently hanging in my closet, have been wool. Of those, I eventually wound up selling my light weight kilts -- nothing wrong with them, but while they were great for summer wear, I found them a bit cool in the winter, and I had to worry a bit more about breezes in them. Again, I simply found myself wearing them less and less often until I sold them.

So now I have all medium and heavy weight kilts -- four yard box pleated, as well as 8 yard knife pleated. I wear them in all seasons, all weather conditions, all activities.

The only time I have ever had to repress the pleats in one of my kilts was once after coming back from a local Highland Games. It started to rain as I was loading up my car -- I mean downpour. The water fell in sheets. I got soaked in under a minute. So, in my wet kilt, I sat in the car and drove about an hour and a half home. During the ride, as my kilt dried, the wrinkles from where I was sitting were "pressed" into the back of my kilt. Looked horrible. So I had to press those out. Other than that, I have owned kilts for years and never had to repress the pleats. And this is with some solid wear.

I can count the times I have taken any of my kilts to the cleaners on one finger. :-) Most everything that needs to be cleaned can be handled in house, and that is rare.

The only wear and tear that has ever shown has been on my oldest kilt, about 8 yeards onld, which is just now starting to show some wear on the leather straps -- and these leather straps are not even the highest quality I have seen. No wear at all in the cloth. (I'm not counting here my true "oldest" kilt -- one that I bought at auction that is perhaps 80 years old or so. I did have to replace the leather straps on that one, but there is nothing wrong with the cloth -- I wear the kilt quite a bit, though I still need to replace the waistband, which has become frayed.)

So there you have it. I wear wool kilts all the time with no fuss.
Matt

[Rob]

I have owned kilts, over the years, in light weight, medium weight, and heavy weight wool.

Matt,

Over the years I have seen a number of definitions of what is meant by light weight, medium weight and heavy weight. The cloth for my traditional kilt was specially woven from 15oz wool (being one of the rarer tartans), and my kilt maker in Scotland, who arranged for the weaving, said that it was medium weight. I had always thought of medium weight as being 13oz, and heavy weight as being 16oz. Are there any accepted definitions of weight? If not, do you have your own ideas on this?

Rob

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Ok, normally when people speak of "light kilt weight" they mean anything in the 10 oz to 12 oz range. The weight cloth is generally used for lady's skirts, light weight men's kilts, and can also be made into ties, scarves, sashes, vests, trousers, etc. Lots of uses, which is why many of the mills have a much wider range of tartans available in this weight. If they are only going to weave a tartan in one weight range, it will likely be this one because the cloth has so many applications.

When people speak of "medium weight" they typically mean a 13 oz to 14 oz cloth. This cloth is used for men's kilts, as well as heavier weight women's skirts, but also suitable for uphostery and the like.

Heavy weight is normally 16 oz per yard. I would class 15 oz cloth as heavy, but I can see where someone else would class it as medium. This is the best cloth for making men's kilts and is usually woven specifically for that purpose.

Regimental weights can be even heavier, anything from 18 oz to 22 oz per linear yard.

Sometimes you will also see what is called "spring weight" which is typically about 8 or 9 oz, and often a plain weave (as opposed to a twill). This is used to make ties, scarves, sashes, and the like, but not made up into skirts or kilts.

Aye,
Matt