repressing a kilt that has been pressed incorrectly

[veda_sticks]

oh ffs, that doesnt look good at all, ive just noticed that its all uneven where the stitching is. Any advice on how to correct this? Should i iron out or press the stitched area s some of the stictched parts have rumbled making them a smaller size :/

I had another attempt at pressing, and while it looked nice and flat on the floor, once on, the pleats still didnt sit right,

[CDNSushi]

I just don't understand why you don't baste the pleats.... (Or have you already? If so, I must have missed it) And baste them WELL... As in, 3 or even 4 lines if necessary.

But if the construction of the kilt is poor to begin with, it'll never line up no matter how hard you try.

[veda_sticks]

I might just have to take the time and baste it, ive also noticed that a few of the peats, once it gets down to the bottom, its run off at an angle, so its not a straight pleat, for example one of the pleats has a strip starting at the fell right on the edge of a stripe, once it gets to the bottom of the pleat, the stripe has ran off and there is now a stripe and a little bit of colour to the side of the stripe, i flattened everything out and noticed that it made things spread out, so it was sitting nice and flat. The creases must now be in the wrong place.


This may take some long carefull basting to correct, It really does not sit well at all. If i cant correct it myself i may have to take it to someone that could do it better than me.

[Chas]

It's a £50 kilt - it will never be a £300+ kilt. There is a reason that some kilts cost more and that reason is attention to detail.

The first picture clearly shows that the vertical purple stripes have not been sewn down correctly. Picture 3 shows 5 vertical purples and they are all wrong. They should show 1 purple stripe, not parts of the next stripe as well and not disappear as the middle ones do.

What are your options?

Get rid of the kilt. Well you could, but that does not cure the problem. If you cannot send the kilt back (and I am assuming that you can't), then you are left with option two or option three.

Option two is to re-build the kilt. Even good kilt makers do not like rebuilding a kilt, because the only proper way is to unstitch everything and then start from scratch.

The third option is to re-press, in the hope of correcting the bad fell. You will never make it right. The best you can hope for is to make the best of a bad job.

At this point I will give you a tip about basting. I was taught how to do it by Steve Ashton himself. My own private Masterclass. I am still no good at it!. It is one of those skills (like riding a bike), that once mastered is never forgotten and easily done. But until it is mastered, there is a lot of scraped knees, bruised shins and cracked heads - And learning how to ride a bike is hard too!

So this is my tip - paperclips. I use the plain steel variety. Plastic covered is OK, if you can guarantee that they won't melt! To re-press the whole back of a kilt I use about 500+.

The process:
Start where ever you want - I tend to go for the left and move to the right. We are only going to work with the outside of the kilt - the inside will get pressed at the same time, but doesn't need any action.

Look at the end of the fell - that is how your pleat is going to be all the way down. (You can't do anything about the fell, it is stitched down. All you can do is carry that on.)

Follow the thread down for an inch and put in your first paperclip. If the existing fold is not in the right place, roll it between slightly damp fingertips till it is. This is the beauty of this system - you can re-do it 10 or 20 times till it is right without rethreading needles.

Carry on working down the pleat till you reach the hem or selvedge.

Check from the top again.

Move onto next pleat. Do the same. And the next pleat. And the next.

Once you get your eye in you can do it quite quickly.

Personally I do not press till I have the whole back (or all the area that I want to press) clipped. That way you can now look at the kilt in it's entirety and see any areas that need to be adjusted.

Pressing. Many different methods, but remember this: It is not ironing. Ironing means waving the iron over the fabric and moving the fabric around. Whereas pressing means steam and pressure. I use a steam generator and pressing cloth, but I have had equally good success from a steam iron and a damp cloth.

Once steamed and pressed, I remove the pressing cloth and allow to dry and cool naturally.

Personally, I have found the pressing to be easy, but only if the pleats are properly clipped first.

You might get some indentation from the clips once they are removed. It is now an easy thing to quickly repress as the pleats are now in. Yes I know that you are doing it twice, but it is only five minutes and then done.

I hope this helps.

Regards

Chas

[Damocles]

i am with chas on this. you cant correct improper sewing. the fact that your tartans pattern is not lining up was do to it not being in the right place at the time it was fixed when they stitched the fell.l the best you can do is give it a nice press and ware it.
i know we cant all spend 1000.00$ for a new kilt this is why i make my own. i am a vary experienced tailor with 30 years of sewings mens suiting so a kilt doesn't present much of a problem ones i learned how to do it. if you decide to do one your self Get Barbra T book its vary exacting in its technical out line of the proper making of a kilt. even if you are not a superb tailor you should if you faithfully fallow the directions get a better kilt then what you have now. at least your tartans lines will match. you can ware a lot of just OK kilts and get away with it but as far as I'm concerned if the lines don't match theirs no way to cover that up. but on the other hand a kilt is a kilt ware what you have and be happy its still a nice color hope that doesn't come off sounding hady of proud as thats not the way i meant it I'm just trying to be practical
Paul

[Father Bill]

I just hate to see any kilt repressed. I rather think they should be encouraged!

Depressed either!

[chrisupyonder]

Chas {Carry on working down the pleat till you reach the hem or selvedge.}

Are the clips then 1 inch apart all the way down each pleat?

Chris.

[piperdbh]

Are the clips then 1 inch apart all the way down each pleat?

Chris.

Yes. The paper clips take the place of basting. It's sort of like using pins to hold fabric together when sewing. the more pins, the less the fabric will move. The more paper clips, the less the pleats will roll back into their undesired position.

[Damocles]

I just hate to see any kilt repressed. I rather think they should be encouraged!

Depressed either!

that is funny man!

[veda_sticks]

Right ill have to try this with the paper clips. I had an attempt at redoing it without basting, but the result was the same, pleats that looked to be even but it just would not sit right, had that wavey look.

is there anywhere in the UK that does decent PV kilts. I went with heritage of scotland because i had read a few good things about them. and the Kilts i seen hanging up looked pretty good. The 1 i got was taken from another shop as they had none in a 30 waiste and the 32 was too big from me. Im thinking ive been really unlucky and got a bad one.

the pattern not lining up how it should i dont mind so much, its more getting it to sit like a kilt should is what really bugs me.

Id love to make my own kilt, but i just dont think i have the skill to build one properly even if i done lots of practice. Im not good at doing things perfectly straight.

having it rebuilt woiuld be nice but would it really be worth the expense? how much would that cosT? ive seen kilt makers charge $250 and then the cost of the fabric to build 1 from scratch. id imagine having someone take it apart then redo would just not worth it, id be better of just having 1 custom made.

oh Im in the UK