Peter Makes Great Kilts and Explains How!

Sewist’s Name: Peter Traneus Anderson from Massachusetts

Type of Project: Kilts (Click here for his instructions to make a kilt!)

Featured Date: 05-15-24

Hi, my name is Peter and I make kilts. I was born in New Jersey, and now live north of Boston in Massachusetts. My mother was half Scottish. I joined a Scottish Country Dancing Group in 1975 in Burlington, Vermont. One of the teachers made me a kilt in 1976. I made my first kilt in 1977 from an old white sheet.

I make my own kilts to have the features I want and the cloth I want. I get to experiment with various fabrics. I made one longkilt from upholstery fabric expecting warmth, but the fabric was not warm at all. I make regular knee-length kilts, and longkilts for cool and cold weather. Also, I am generous with the inner apron, so my kilts can adjust for increases in my waistline.

I wear a kilt daily. I only wear pants when mowing my lawn. I have made nineteen kilts that I still have or can recall. I taught myself to sew simple work in high school in the 1960s. I still sew  only simple work, as my description of how I make a kilt shows. At first, I hand-sewed my kilts. Now, I machine-sew my kilts.

Choosing the cloth and pinning the pleats. When choosing the cloth, I have to check that one selvedge is presentable and does not have advertising text. When I bought black pinstripe cloth, one fabric’s selvedge was not presentable, so I chose a different fabric. By the way, the pinstripes in a kilt run horizontally.

I do not sell kilts. I make kilts just for my own wear. If a person is intrigued by kilts, I suggest they look up “greatkilt” to try on. A greatkilt has no stitching at all. If you try on a greatkilt and don’t like it, you can use the fabric for something else.

The first two weeks I lived in Massachusetts, 26 years ago, I lived in a motel room across from a shopping center with a sewing-machine store and a fabric store. I bought a machine and fabric and made myself a longkilt. I’m still wearing that longkilt.

Thank you,

Peter Traneus Anderson

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