overstitching to add yellow line, Gordon kilt

[OC Richard]

This this the first time I've seen such a thing

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Gord...4AAOSwMNxXZ0t1

Old stock from the Western Costume Company, Hollywood comes up on Ebay from time to time. Often the items are vintage Scottish army items, which WCC then added their labels to.

Think of all the old Hollywood movies with Scottish soldiers, the Shirley Temple films and so forth. All those kilts and such would have come from WCC, or been things owned by the individual studios.

This kilt first struck my eye as being stange: a boxpleated Gordon Highlanders kilt!

Then I noticed the yellow stripes looked odd, and the closeup photos revealed the kilt to be an old Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders kilt which had had yellow stripes overstitched with a sewing machine. So very strange.

The back of the kilt



A closeup of the funky stitching

[Grizzled Ian]

How bizarre! I hope it's not a trend that catches on.

[Mike S]

Other than the Hollywood film history and memorabilia angle, I hate to see that happen to a kilt from my beloved A&S Highlanders.
The stitches WILL come out easily however.

[Tarheel]

We have many members that will respond to this thread because they are involved in theater costume alterations and design. Most items (like the yellow stripes in this kilt) were used to gain effect during filming. The reason probably was the lack of the original kilts available for the cast or extras. It would be an easy fix to remove the yellow machined lines. I hope they haven't damaged the fabric with the sewing machine.

[OC Richard]

I'm guessing they needed more Gordon kilts than they had to hand, and made do.

It would be very interesting to know the film history of that kilt! Who knows, it may have been in regular use since the early 20th century. It might have an IMBD as long as your arm.

[Pleater]

Having made and remade some of my kilts several times I would hazard that the zig zag stitches could be removed and leave scarcely any evidence of their presence. A seam ripper run up the inside of the lines would release the lower thread, and then the top thread could be removed intact.
The kilt might benefit from a rebuild to repair damage and remake seams, but wool fabrics are very enduring.

Anne the Pleater

[Tartan Tess]

Weird. But if Hollywood wanted it.....that was a lot of work with a sewing machine. I wonder what the apron looked like?

[OC Richard]

As long as the listing is still up on Ebay you can click on it and see all the photos.

Here's the front apron.

The odd thing is how they made the horizontal and vertical yellow stripes look very different. I wonder why.