Hemming a kilt

[ThreadBbdr]

Message received loud and clear - three buckles, the man wants THREEEEEEEEEEE bucklesssssssss !

[Dukeof Kircaldy]

I am good at setting up looms! Everything else. forget it!

[ChattanCat]

I''m good at kilting, but Karla it the weaver and has much more sewing experience.
Three buckles is a preference of the kilt wearer. You should have it whatever way you want it, I just feel it in unnecessary and actually interferes with the apron spreading. The same goes with belt loops...

[Dukeof Kircaldy]

I'm kind of sorry this isn't Chattan. Of course, the other issue would be whether this fits or not had it have been.

[Mark Keeney]

Fascinating thread!

B.T.W. Most people who knit know what a float is.

[ThreadBbdr]

Fascinating thread!

B.T.W. Most people who knit know what a float is.

but when you knit with two colors, you WANT floats

[Mark Keeney]

but when you knit with two colors, you WANT floats

Unless you use bobbins.

[ThreadBbdr]

True, but most of the colorwork that I do is stranded, not inarstia.

To haul the thread back on topic, I'm about halfway done with the reweaving. Pictures when I'm done.

[Barb T]

I would say at least 1960s era, maybe older. The weave is, as I mentioned above, softer and has the 'old school' selvage. It's a single length, and I suspect the fabric may be hand loomed or at least done on the Victorian kilt looms.
If you are comparing this to kilts made in the last few years, the selvage edge looks a LOT different. See how on your kilt, the thread wraps around the edge more loosely? That's because the modern looms pack two threads in the space on the selvage that one thread would occupy on a handloom or the older kilt looms. I think I'd like this edge better overall. I wish it was still the standard.

Hmm - this doesn't look like hand loomed tartan to me. What am I missing? Karla - I realize that you are an expert on textiles. Can you tell us why it looks hand loomed to you?

As far as the selvedge goes, there are two mills that currently weave the old-fashioned perfect selvedge - D.C. Dalgliesh and House of Edgar. So, not all tartan is currently being woven with a turned selvedge on a rapier loom. I've made three kilts already this year with tartan that has a selvedge just like the one on the kilt you're fixing, and I'm getting read to make two more.

[ThreadBbdr]

The reason why I thought it might be hand loomed is that there is a bit of a "waver" here and there in the twill line that I would expect to see on a hand loom, but not on the big commercial looms. The twill line isn't perfectly even, but I'm not sure if that's an artifact of the way the kilt's been treated, pressed, ect over the years. It's very subtle. And there are marks from a "temple" here and there in the selvage area as will as the weaving flaw. Both of those things I'd expect to see on a handloomed piece, but not on commercial fabric. It could be a mill second, perhaps.

I just haven't handled enough tartans, especially vintage ones, to be sure.

(A temple for the non weavers is a device with little teeth that a weaver uses to keep the cloth stretched full width on the loom. It makes a mark on the edge of the cloth that sometimes remains after the cloth is fulled/finished.)

Barb, do you know if the mills that you mentioned use any kind of device to stretch the fabric on the loom? Also, the hand is much 'fuzzier', softer than either the Lochcarron that I have or the tartans that the guys let me examine in KC.

Reading in your book, Barb, is it possible that I might be looking at the softer Dalgliesh F/1? It's described as a soft finish worsted.

At any rate, it's a lovely old kilt and Michael is very lucky to have it in his collection. On the documentation I'm putting together for him, I'm not going to mention the handloomed, since I'm NOT in anyway sure. But it's definately the old school lovely selvage! I so wish that everyone still used that kind. I may have to try to get my hands on some of the Dalgliesh, it sounds wonderful from the mention in Barb's book.