How I became a kiltmaker

You might not have discovered this about me yet, but I love to sew! When I started doing custom jewellery shows (just pre-covid, sadly), I decided I needed some textile additions to my show display. And so I made these two mini quilts:

When I was thinking about moving back to Toronto, and what I was going to do with my career, I started thinking about my love of sewing, and how I might make some aspect of that into my business. While I love to quilt, I didn’t want it to become work!

Around that time, I reconnected with a friend in Edinburgh that happens to be a kiltmaker. We were chatting, and she happened to mention that they were starting up a kiltmakers academy to train the next generation of kiltmakers. You see, the art of traditional, handmade kilts was being lost, as knowledge was being lost or degraded over time. So, the idea was to develop a program that was a professional, technical designation, and bring some consistency of making to the craft again.

I love to hand sew, and there are a lot of Scots in Canada! So, I thought this might be useful . So, I spent 4 months of intensive Saturdays learning to make kilts on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh.

Here are a few examples of the kilts I made as part of the course. I had to complete a total of six kilts to graduate, including a child’s kilt, a military box pleat, an asymmetric tartan, a heavy weight tartan and a plain cloth kilt. In addition, I had to learn how to do alterations. It was a great course, and gave me a baptism by fire of most aspects of kiltmaking. I know about making pipers’ kilts and dancer kilts as well, although I didn’t have to make one to complete the course.

I feel very prepared to embark on my new journey as a traditional Scottish Kiltmaker!

Looking for an heirloom quality kilt? Or to have that kilt you grandparent handed down to you? Contact me for more information, and let’s talk!