Hemming a kilt

[James MacMillan]

If you did a herringbone where you caught just a few threads on each pass on the "outside" of the kilt, it would work the same, but Barb is right, the herringbone has more flexibility to it than a straight blind stitch. I usually do a "canted blind stitch", which is a term I just made to suggest that the stitch isn't straight across, it's "tilted".

That term would describe any sewing that I would do - it would all be "tilted!"

[Barb T]

If you did a herringbone where you caught just a few threads on each pass on the "outside" of the kilt, it would work the same, but Barb is right, the herringbone has more flexibility to it than a straight blind stitch. I usually do a "canted blind stitch", which is a term I just made to suggest that the stitch isn't straight across, it's "tilted".

When you do a herringbone for a hem or a catch stitch, you do just catch a thread or two on the "outside" if the kilt.

[ThreadBbdr]

I think I may have a fix for the 'not enough to turn up' part of this project. Twill worsted wool bias tape applied to the hem will let us get the hem up to where the hemming stitches will be right at a tartan line. Applied flat (not like bias tape would usually be used), it should extend the fabric enough.

There will be three layers right at the turn line, but so long as there is even a quarter inch of turn over, it should work.....

[Dukeof Kircaldy]

Karla, Has this arrived yet? I was thinking it may show up in pictures here as to how to deal with a badly mangled kilt. I await your opinion on it's condition.

BTW, was the left side belt moved, but not the right ones? The stitching on it looks as if that was the case. Again, your opinion this would be nice.

[ThreadBbdr]

Not as of last night. I'll run home before choir practice and check. I've also told my neighbor to keep an eye out for it and be sure the postal person puts it inside on the porch.

I'll certainly take some pictures of the 'before, during and after'.

Looking forward to working on this for you.

[Dukeof Kircaldy]

Actually, I think the crew are interested in this project, especially if I am being a bit over reactive about the amount of alterations which were done in the past.

Thank you.

[ThreadBbdr]

The kilt was waiting for me when I got home from work. There is some good news and some very good news.

First of all, the hem

It's not actually been cut off. The kilting selvage is about 90% intact. What happened is that there was a weaving flaw about a half inch from the selvage. (See it where the pointy end of the pin is above?) Which is really too bad, because this is the old school selvage with the neat kilting edge, not the modern turned in edge. This flaw occurs every few inches. The kilt is pleated to the sett, so the flaw pops out in several obvious places.

Now some dim bulb decided that the way to fix this was to cut off the long doubled float..... which causes this
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Again this happened in several places - so I can see why Michael thought the whole thing was whacked off.

That's the very good news. It won't need any of the serging or bias tape (though I'm saving both of those ideas for future kilts that WILL need them). Instead it will need a few bits of careful reweaving before turning up a very modest hem.

Looking at the buckles:

I don't think they have been moved. They still line up on the edge of the double pleat. I think the kiltmaker just only cared about lining up the tartan for the tab on the bottom one and didn't bother with the two that are covered by your belt. There's no way with this kilt's dimensions that the top tab ever lined up on the white stripe - that line is almost a half a sett away in either direction!

Again, very good news (but I will put the tongue side back on that is hanging by a thread, and restitch the one that is done in a poorly matching color.) Obviously, the buckle tabs were not a high priority for them, since the twill line is even upside down on the bottom tab! Since we don't have any way to get this fabric, I think you'll just have to live with the waist buckles. That bottom one offends me. I'm going to try to rework it.

The hand of the fabric is much "Fuzzier" than modern Lochcarron, not as "hard" a worsted, I suspect. The drape and hand are quite nice and it's been well taken care of. I'll go over it again, but other than the flaw in the hem, it looks good. The stitching is nice (I checked all the pleats and they are intact except for the double pleat at the apron side - which has popped loose at the bottom - I'll fix that when I restitch the leather side of the buckles.)

As the seller indicated, there are some stains and discoloration on the liner, just normal wear and tear. Do you want me to replace the muslin?

I was expecting a total disaster, but this baby just needs a little (very little) TLC and you'll have a fantastic kilt.

[ChattanCat]

Now some dim bulb decided that the way to fix this was to cut off the long doubled float..... which causes this
Again this happened in several places - so I can see why Michael thought the whole thing was whacked off.

Ok, what is a double float?

[Dukeof Kircaldy]

Karla, Fabulous news, This does make me feel good. It seemed as if there were places where the kilt looked as if it had been uneven and sewn up. That was another reason I thought it had been hacked up. Anyway, if it is uneven that should make it slightly easier to find thread for reweaving (I hope). I was always told to keep the bottoms of trousers that had been hemmed for reweaving should the case arise.

It was the left belt I thought had been moved over to make the kilt larger. Well, that belt looked as if it had been resewn! Any ideas about that?

Don't bother with replacing the muslin.

Any idea on about how old this kilt is? My guess is about 40 years.

Chattancat, this is the kilt I mentioned to you. Sorry the tartan wasn't Chattan.

Thank you all!

[ThreadBbdr]

There was a flaw in the way that the fabric was woven - instead of the twill line going over two, under two at that particular spot, it goes over four. Basically that 'thread' is twice as long as the surrounding ones.

Which would have been fine, if somebody hadn't tried to 'fix' it by cutting the flaw away. Which weakened the fabric and caused it to fray. What I will do is lift the liner over the steeks, coax out a few threads here and there and use a blunt needle to reweave the areas where there are holes. I could, in theory, reweave every place the flaw occurs, but since we need to hem this up anyhow, I'm just going to do the holes to restore the integrity of the weave so the holes don't get bigger.

Usually what you would do it use the other selvage, but I THINK this may be a single width tartan. There's no 'back' seam anywhere at any rate. This is a vintage piece and may even be hand loomed. I know it wasn't woven on a rapier loom, since the selvage is not turned and cut - the threads only do the turn in at the color changes.

It's fascinating to get my hands on something this old. My first degree was in anthropology and I was heading to be a curator of textiles at a museum before Walt got sick. They pay accountants (even accounting clerks) better than grad students, so I felt I needed to stay in corporate America. Good thing as it turned out.