Hair Canvas in the Apron of a Canvas Kilt

[Smayniac]

Bob,

Did you back the entire front apron? What was the benefit of it?

I have lots of fusible interfacing left over from a no-sew costume construction project and it seems like it would leave the apron really stiff. (Then again, I've never used it as actual interfacing.) I'd love to use it if it will help my next x-kilt.

David, who also knows next to nothing about sewing

I did back the whole front apron, the fabric I used for that one is fairly loose weave; I like the look, but it needed more weight and body. Fusible interfacing comes in a variety of weights, I used a medium weight chosen specifically for that purpose. What you have may be heavier.
Bob

[Bugbear]

Ok, I've cut off the buckle on the right hand side, it is the small size type buckle with a leather tab, and I have started the sewing. It's difficult for me to find the holes in the leather, so it takes a long, long, long time for me to do. Like I said the vuckle was in the wrong place, as far as I can figure, so I've moved it forward or closer to the edge of the apron.

I would like to switch over to the regular size kilt straps some day because the button hole on the left is actually large enough for the one and a quarter inch strap. I do usually wear a kilt belt with this kilt though, so no big hurry.

I also have some tweeking to do, so it might be a few days before I finish the kilt.

[Bugbear]

Oops...

I sewed the buckle partway on, then checked it and it was too far forward. That was just a measuring mistake, but now I know what the front apron does when it can't be pulled tight.

I will start again tomorrow; I don't think I can do any more sewing this evening.

I removed the belt loops because I don't use them, and they kind of got in the way. I'm pondering what to do with them; I might put a loop to hang something from... I don't know.

* I kept thinking about it, and it was bothering me, so I moved the buckle to the correct place. It's not completely sewn on yet, but enough to check.

It's much much better now, and everything centers up nicely.

As far as I could tell the apron edge was almost a ninety degree angle, but it had a large turn under to work with. I used that to angle the hem as much as I could from the waistband to the bottom edge. It's very close to the angle of the other side of the apron, and it now curls around the side of my leg down toward the bottom like the other side does. kind of like a regular kilt apron does.

I don't think it was originally designed to have the apron centered at the top and bottom, but it looks, or feels, much better to me, now.

There is an issue with the reverse double pleat at the underapron up at the hip area, but I'm still studdying what is causing the problem.

At the very least, this is showing me what I would like in a contemporary kilt, but I think it's coming out OK.

[Bugbear]

Ok, I finnished stitching the tab and buckle back on. If I ever buy regular sized kilt straps and buckles for this kilt, I wil not be putting the buckles on leather dabs like that. It is too much to deal with getting the needle through the thick inner stabilizer/waistband thing, and into the hole in the leather from the back side. And like I said the kilt centers up much better now.

I've started doing all the stitching on the facing of the apron edge and tacking down the hair canvas etc. That may take some experimenting and tweeking.

All I know is that the apron is behaving as I wanted it to behave, both in the hair canvas area, and the bottom right edge of the apron.

[Bugbear]

Well for what it is worth...

I went into town to get some fabric to line the kilt, and also some matching khaki bias tape.

Yesterday I had sewn down the apron facing with a million tiny herringbone stitches that caught a single thread of the apron for each stitch; that was what was originally there as best as I could tell. The part on the stitching caught a few threads, and I put a back stitch into every third or fourth stitch. This lets the folded over facing move just a little in relation to the apron. It also holds down the hair canvas on that side of the apron.

I put some larger herringbone stitches between the back of the apron and the hair canvas on the other side, where the first pleat is, so the hair canvas could have some movement, but be held in place. The first pleat also helps with that, or so it seems.

At the very least, the hair canvas will need to be covered with lining because it extends a little passed what the under apron covers on the left side. I don't know if I will line the whole kilt.

As far as the double reverse pleat on the right side, I can tell that the inside fold of one of the pleats, which is stitched in, is in the wrong place. I mean for it to fit me, I don't think I will remove the stitching, but the pleat wands to have a different fold, so I am going to try to give it that fold. There is another issue, but I am still trying to figure out the cause.

I think I'm pretty close to having the kilt up and running again. It won't fit as well as my wool kilt after I did all of it's alterations, but I don't expect that.

[Canuck]

Just a thought regarding the puckering you experienced before taking on this task.
It is my understanding that it is the under apron that should be snugged up and generally this is what holds the kilt up. The over apron is just buckled up with no tension. The over tightening of the over apron is what causes the kilt to pucker in most cases.

[Bugbear]

Just a thought regarding the puckering you experienced before taking on this task.
It is my understanding that it is the under apron that should be snugged up and generally this is what holds the kilt up. The over apron is just buckled up with no tension. The over tightening of the over apron is what causes the kilt to pucker in most cases.

Hi Canuck,

I'm probably using the term puckering in the wrong way, so let me describe the problem or behavior I was getting rid of with the hair canvas.

When I sit down in a kilt, the apron folds horizontally in several places; it has to.

When I stand back up, the canvas has a bunch of horizontal folds in it that require the apron to be smoothed over and tugged downward a little.

With the hair canvas behind it, two things happen to the apron; this happens with the wool kilt as well as canvas. First the folds are not as sharp and they are mostly down at the bend of the hips with the hair canvas; it's stiffness is arranged vertically and forms itself around my belly. Next, when I stand back up, all the folds just pop back out because of the hair canvas and the apron pretty much smoothes itself out; the wool kilt did that on it's own to some degree, but was helped along with the hair canvas. All of this also applied to bending forward.

I was calling the horizontal folds and the crumpling up of the apron at the lower belly, "puckering."

However, there was another issue with this kilt and the placement of the right hand side buckle. I think that may have been a mistake in the construction of this specific kilt; however, I think the apron was also designed to work in a different way than I would like. I have fixed that and all is well, but it seems like the front apron was not tapered into an "A" shape on the right hand side. The design appears to rely on the right hand of the under apron to define where the edge of the top apron would be on a regular kilt; it had an apron with a narrow bottom design in other words. That means that to make the bottom of the apron centered the kilt had to be way off center on the top. There was enough facing to add the taper I wanted.

That does not fix the way the reverse double pleat behaves, but it, at least, makes the apron more like a regular kilt apron, and covers both of my legs when I sit down.

I hope that makes sense. I'm not a kilt maker nor a tailor, but I went by, in part, what I have learned about interfacing in suit jackets and other clothing for this kilt alteration.

And at this point I am trying to work out the details of the lining I want to put over the hair canvas. There's nothing that I can do about the double pleat at the underapron edge; it just wants to be open or spread apart, and I think that is how it is designed to be. I can live with it.

[Bugbear]

Ok, I have put all the hems etc in the lining for the front apron. The fabric was just a little thinner than I would have liked so I have two layers of lining that are sewn along the edges and turned like making a pillow case. I have finished sewing one side to the back of the apron along the facing. There are a couple of shallow pleats in the middle of the lining, and it will all be tacked to the hair canvas. I haven't decided exactly how to attach it to the other side, that might take some experimenting, but it will be stitched to the waistband/stabilizer across the top edge of the lining.

I don't want it just hanging there loose to get bunched up and so on.

[Bugbear]

What I've ended up doing is tethering the lining to the hair canvas and on the left hand side with doubled up thread, like with a button, and with some slack to let the lining move, but not too much.

It works for now, but I'm sure there are other, better ways of attaching the lining.

So I will probably be redoing it at some point in the future.

I guess to wash the kilt, I will fill my washer part way with water and soap; hand wash the kilt; put my laundry in without the kilt, then put the kilt in rolled up when the spinn and rence cycle starts.

This hair canvas is rayon and polyester, but I'm not sure what would happen in the first cycle of the wash, and I'm also not sure what will happen to those tethering stitches when being yanked around in ways that never happen when the kilt is being worn.

That is worth not having the crumpling issue when wearing the kilt.

* never mind the washing stuff. I remembered that I have a mesh clothing bag for the washer, so I just folded it up in the bag, zipped it up, and threw it in the washer. We'll see how it holds up.

If it gets pulled apart, I don't mind doing it all over again.
*

[Bugbear]

Ok, I ran it through the washer in the mesh washing bag. All the stitches held up fine, and the hair canvas looks fine.

I have it spread out on my clothes drying rack with a fan on it, and I'll let it dry out part way, then iron it dry.

It all seems to have worked out well, and I needed to water one of the cactus hedges, so the fifty gallons of gray water was welcome too.

I don't know for sure how well the stiching will hold up over time, that's the tether stitching, but I guess that's part of the experiment too.

* I have ironed the pleats, and the aprons. The pleats are sewn in on the inside and outside edges, and I have to make sure that those edges are laying flat on the inside of the kilt before I iron them. It works out a lot better if I iron one pleat at a time, then iron across all of them when they are all flattened. It takes a while.

On the double reverse pleat on the right hand side, I pressed in a new crease on the inside edge of the last pleat (not the under apron edge). It wanted to fold there so I went ahead and accepted that. It's not sewn in, but it will fold there on it's own. I might go back and press it from the back side now that the crease is well defined.

There's a little more stitching here and there I need to finnish, but I think the beastly thing is done. I like that the kilt is rugged and made from the very strong cotton fabric; though it means I have to iron it and it does have to be unrumpled after sitting. The kilt was not designed to fit my body shape, and it would be much better if it were; that's a tradeoff I made and I've done what I can to make the best of it.