broken Utilikilt snap

[NewEnglander]

Since my Utilikilt mocker is a bit big I usually just slide it off, but I happened to fully unsnap it last night. When I went to put it back on just now I see that one of the snaps broke -- the "male" side (for want of a better word) came off of the kilt, remaining in the "female" side.
Does anyone have any suggestions about how to fix this? It's not an emergency since the kilt is kept closed by the other snaps, but I'm kind of pissed that it broke after owning the kilt for less than a year and actually unsnapping the snap maybe 6 times in total. Should I contact UK?

[Tobus]

Personally, I would contact them and see what they're willing to do. If you have to fix it yourself, you can. But it may require investing in a snap setting tool. Usually snaps consist of four parts. Two for the female side and two for the male side. There is a little "iron" or "jig" that you have to set them into and hammer them with a pressing tool to get them clamped on either side of the material. It's easy to do, and I've done thousands of them on leather goods, but if you don't have the tools it's not going to work well.

I'm sure that clothing manufacturers probably have fancy machines that do this instead of doing it by hand, but the process is still roughly the same.

When the male side stuck to the female side, did the metal break away from where it was? Or does it look like it just wasn't set (pressed) tight enough with the other backing piece?

[NewEnglander]

Yeah, I have no way of repairing this. I don't see any broken metal so I'm getting that it wasn't set tight enough. I guess I'll have to get in touch w/ Utilikilt.
Thanks for the info!

[Squeaky McMurdo]

That's actually a good thing that no metal actually broke. No parts to pry out. Utilikilt can probably fix it in all of a minute or so.

Or if you know someone who might have a snap-setting tool, they could do it.

[Streetcar]

For what it's worth, I had the same thing happen to my UK after only wearing it a half dozen times. As I live in Seattle, I brought it in and they fixed it on the spot.

I'd be suprised if they didn't do the same for you, for the cost of shipping.

But it's probably cheaper to take it to a local tailor.

Another thought while I'm typing - if you're near the coastline, there should be any number of sail repair shops that could replace the snap.

[NewEnglander]

hmmm...good thoughts all...I'll have to weight the kiltless time to send it back across the country against chancing having someone else work on it.

[Rex_Tremende]

You might stop in to your local Jo Ann or Hancock's fabric store to see what tools they might be willing to lend you for a quick repair on the premises before you send it back.

Regards,
Rex.

[vorpallemur]

If you can use a hammer, you can replace the snap. Hobby lobby and places like that sell a kit of about 20 snap sets, a die, and punch from Tandy leather for somewhere between five and ten bucks. You want ligne 24 snaps to match what's on the UK (at least, that's what's on my four year old mocker).

Most of the fabric stores around here don't have snaps of the sort you need, and the ones that do charge silly amounts of money for them, and sell the tools seperately. Get them from a leather working place. If there's an actual leather retail supplier near you, they might even do it for you.

This assumes that the snap just fell off, because it wasn't installed properly, it was defective, or it just fell off. Snaps like this are in four pieces. There's the top cover, a female socket, the male stud, and then a bottom piece. If what's happened is that the fabric is ripped, you'll need to fix that, too. (there should be a hole about the diameter of a pencil.)

[Woodsman]

I've had this happen before to me. That's why I specifically asked Michael about the possibility of this happening when I bought my Americakilt. He assured me that if anything like this ever happens to get in touch with him and he'll repair it.

I'm happy to report that after more than a year of wearing my olive Amerikilt that the snaps and everything have held up admirably. And I'm guilty of just unsnapping the 2 top snaps and pulling it on or off. I'm truly a lazy guy in a kilt!

[Canuck]

Try an upholstry shop. even some automotive windshield repair shops as they do tarps with snaps. Might require a repair on the hole and re-enforce the spot.