I've already gotten great advice on shaping the apron of my home-made kilt. But now I'm having trouble basting. I'm sure practice is the main thing, but I'd like to learn a few tricks along the way until my sewing skills improve. I've basted the top apron edges, per the AoKM instructions. However, I'm having two issues: first, the stitching is separating, creating two parallel, yet shaky, lines down apron edge framing my chalk marks. I assumed (correct me, if necessary) that you were supposed to fold directly on the chalk marks. Second issue is that the stripes are not matching up. Deb specifically warns about this, but I'm having trouble actually executing this.

Question: would safety pins work to keep these temporary seams straight and correct?