Kilt with no hair canvas

**M. A. C. Newsome** · 22nd January 12, 02:24 PM

There was a thread on here recently by another kiltmaker who was doing some alteration work, and made the comment on how surprised he sometimes was at what he discovered beneath the lining in kilts from other makers.

I had a similar experience myself recently. I was asked to replace the lining on a kilt which was getting quite worn out. The label on the kilt said J. Higgins, but this was very much an older kilt, and had seen heavy wear. The lining was thread bare and coming apart from the kilt in several places.

Of course the first step in putting new lining in is to remove the old lining. When I did, this is what I found.

That's right. There was hair canvas stitched in for reinforcement on both the aprons, but NOT across the pleats, where it is truly needed.

I have seen plenty of kilts where there is no hair canvas on the aprons, especially when the kilt is a nice, heavy weight cloth. It's not really needed there.

And I would have been less surprised to find no hair canvas at all. But what shocked me was the fact that it was present in the aprons, but not across the pleats.

Now, it could well be that this kilt was altered at some point in the past, and whomever did it removed the hair canvas and neglected to put any back in. But I did not see any other signs of alteration on the kilt.

To give you an idea of what long term wearing of a kilt with no reinforcement in the pleats will do to it, I took this photo showing you the distortion in the pleats. This is the kilt just laying flat on my work table, relaxed.

Needless to say that I worked out the distortion as best I could with an iron, and my client, in addition to brand new lining, also got some hair canvas thrown in to the bargain. :-)

I share because if any DIY kiltmakers on here ever wonder just how important that hair canvas is, now you know...

**RockyR** · 22nd January 12, 03:24 PM

Interesting pics, Matt. Just goes to show that some makers tak short cuts where they can't be seen by the naked eye without a little 'exploratory surgery'.

**Paul Henry** · 22nd January 12, 03:42 PM

I actually find it fascinating that some kilts have survived as long as they when i get to see what has been inside them!
This is the inside of one I repaired a few years ago,after hearing how wonderful the kiltmaker was ( indeed was even told he was a master kiltmaker) I couldn't help but be curious, still I'm glad he found a use for the sack cloth, and at least there was some padding stitches

**mookien** · 22nd January 12, 03:46 PM

It doesn't just happen to kilts! Those pleats by the buckle look like the flat-felt seams on my jeans after I chub up in the winter time.

**ChattanCat** · 23rd January 12, 04:33 AM

It looks to me that there might have been some canvas in the past but was removed to cut out the pleats and not replaced.

**M. A. C. Newsome** · 23rd January 12, 05:52 AM

Originally Posted by ChattanCat

It looks to me that there might have been some canvas in the past but was removed to cut out the pleats and not replaced.

Could be. But then that would mean that the original kilt maker made the kilt without cutting out any of the pleats above the hip line, which for an 8 yard kilt like this would have been equally as unusual as making it with no reinforcing canvas! Curiouser and curiouser....

**Ryan Ross** · 23rd January 12, 08:51 AM

Thanks for posting this, Matt. Fascinating topic... it's just amazing what you can find, when you look at random kilts... especially older ones.

...remember the kilt with the "mor hole "(not 'wee hole'

) tailored into the underapron?

**artificer** · 23rd January 12, 08:57 AM

Originally Posted by M. A. C. Newsome

To give you an idea of what long term wearing of a kilt with no reinforcement in the pleats will do to it, I took this photo showing you the distortion in the pleats. This is the kilt just laying flat on my work table, relaxed.

Originally Posted by paulhenry

I actually find it fascinating that some kilts have survived as long as they when i get to see what has been inside them!
This is the inside of one I repaired a few years ago,after hearing how wonderful the kiltmaker was ( indeed was even told he was a master kiltmaker) I couldn't help but be curious, still I'm glad he found a use for the sack cloth, and at least there was some padding stitches

I can sum up these two pix in one word:

YIKES!

Thanks guys, I find these forensic threads immensely fascinating.

ith:

**bonnie heather** · 23rd January 12, 03:09 PM

That's so strange! It's hard to imagine that anyone would forget or neglect to put in the back canvas for reinforcing the pleats. Yikes!

I think it's very interesting to alter and repair kilts because when seeing what's inside a well made kilt, one can learn a lot about how to construct a kilt skillfully.
But sometimes it's quite a shock to see the opposite, as in this example. Wow!

**Barb T** · 23rd January 12, 04:51 PM

When I hear someone claim that they can make a hand sewn trad kilt in 10 hours, this is the sort of short-cut that I imagine must have to happen in order to make that possible. Although just leaving out the canvas wouldn't come close to shaving enough time off the process, I can imagine other equally hidden (and, to my mind, unacceptable) shortcuts that could add up to a significant cutting of production time.