Amount of hair canvas required

[Paul Henry]

sorry for the misunderstanding, about fusible things!

The role of the stabliser is to strengthen/support/carry the stress, but it doesn't actually need to be heavy fabric, the buckles are sewn into it (from the front) and it takes the brunt of the pull of the kilt when worn .
I use linen, others use cotton sheeting, one kilt maker here uses a print of the USA flag, I like the idea of woven cloth rather than vilene/non fusible stuff as it doesn't havethe same inherent strength simply because it's not woven.

[Dixiecat]

Horse hair canvas does come in 60" wide bolts. It's harder to find as that width is considered more of a wholesale item for commercial use than the 22". The manufacturer actually takes the wider bolt and cuts it down narrower for retail or home sales.

You can find 60" here:
http://www.fabricschicago.com/index....ir-canvas.html

I know it may not help you in the UK, but if you call a tailor, it may be possible to snag a metre.

If you end up using the 22", you can cut two pieces of the width you need and join them. Overlap the edges by about an inch and use a slanting running stitch down, then up the join.

I'm with PaulHenry on the stabilizer being made from a woven and not a non-fusible. The non-fusible will wear and pull apart while the woven will not. Believe it or not, but the stitching from joining the hair canvas in the above instruction, will last as long as the kilt, but the non-fusible will not.

[Glenn Adrian]

Thanks for the advice on the stabiliser.

The only place I could find in NZ was a specialist tailors linning/fusables supply wholesaler. Not even the best fabric shop in town which has all sorts of odd stuff and the most knowledgeable guy in the industry had any. But the only large fabric shop left after the earthquake now has some, but not stiff enough I think. I know there was a tailors in town that could have supplied me hair canvas, although I'm not sure what firmness. Then came the earthquake and flattened all the buildings in town, including their building. I haven't bothered tracking down where any tailors are based now. But I have ordered a meter of the firmest hair canvas from the wholesaler, so I will see what it's like. (This is probably not a kilt that I am going to wear often anyway, although it is a competition piece.)

For joining you mean to basically use a zig zag stitch?

Horse hair canvas does come in 60" wide bolts. It's harder to find as that width is considered more of a wholesale item for commercial use than the 22". The manufacturer actually takes the wider bolt and cuts it down narrower for retail or home sales.

You can find 60" here:
http://www.fabricschicago.com/index....ir-canvas.html

I know it may not help you in the UK, but if you call a tailor, it may be possible to snag a metre.

If you end up using the 22", you can cut two pieces of the width you need and join them. Overlap the edges by about an inch and use a slanting running stitch down, then up the join.

I'm with PaulHenry on the stabilizer being made from a woven and not a non-fusible. The non-fusible will wear and pull apart while the woven will not. Believe it or not, but the stitching from joining the hair canvas in the above instruction, will last as long as the kilt, but the non-fusible will not.