Do kilts have a "break-in" period?

**The Wizard of BC** · 15th December 11, 04:18 PM

I now come to the area of the kilt where I suspect the biggest problem is.
This this with the interfacing and the stabilizer.

Here is a photo of the interfacing in the area of the Fell behind where the pleats are sewn down and tapered .

If you can see, there are just a few stitches sewing the interfacing to the outer, Tartan fabric of the kilt. When I make a Traditional style kilt this interfacing is sewn down to the Tartan fabric with 5 or 6 horizontal rows of blanket stitching. This is to allow the interfacing to act as a single piece of fabric across the back of the kilt, taking all the stress off the Tartan fabric.

Please note in the upper left corner of the cream colored interfacing. If you can see two vertical lines of machine stitching.... This is where the buckles are sewn to the interfacing.

Now, probably, the maker thought that because they machine sewed this kilt that the stitching would not need a lot of reinforcing. Perhaps it is just how they were taught. But this stitching of the interfacing, as it is done, is not reinforcing the back of the kilt at all.

Also note how the waistband is made. The wide stretch of tartan you see covering the top of the interfacing is where the waistband is folded down from the top most likely allowing the maker to machine stitch the waistband without running off the edge.

**The Wizard of BC** · 15th December 11, 05:18 PM

I now have the kilt disassembled as much as I need to evaluate it fully.

Here is a photo of the last part of the kilt I needed to see. This is the area under the interfacing where the stabilizer usually is.

In this area you can see where the pleats are cut away to keep the kilt from being bulky in the back.
The two top pencils you can see are pointing at where the buckles are located on the back of the kilt.

Here is a detail of this area under the interfacing.

If you look at where the lower pencil is pointing you can see a line of stitching along the pleats. This is called the "Steeking". Because the pleats are cut away they need to be stitched to keep them from sagging under their own weight. The steeking line is usually sewn so that it is not visible. I think this detail on this kilt also needs to be re-done.

You can plainly see that there is no stabilizer installed in this kilt. The buckles were sewn through the Tartan fabric and directly to the interfacing. But because the interfacing itself was not sewn to make it act as a single piece of fabric, the folds in the interfacing acted like an accordion allowing the size of the kilt to stretch.

The next thing now is to start putting this kilt back together.