Stabilizer and Apron Canvas...?

[JimB]

Maybe a picture would help.
Barb is the expert here, but I have a picture of what I used as a stabilizer (which in my understanding is needed to keep the pleats from stretching). I just used a piece of plain (pink sorry to say) cotton that my wife had in her scrap pile. The material had zero give to it and it was handy so I used it. It worked fine.



The horsehair stuff I think is used as a stiffener for the apron. I saw the price of that and I chose not to use it. I had some extra (cotton) canvas and I used that. It seemed to do the job well enough.

[Kilted Taper]

Great. Thanks all for the replies! Much appreciated. Now, back to sewing.

[Barb T]

If you're making a trad kilt by my directions, the stabilizer is only 1 1/4" wide and centered on the waist line. And, if you're making a trad kilt, you really do need the stiffness of the hair canvas to keep the pleats section from buckling and stretching out of shape.

Barb

[JimB]

Ok, it's back to the book then.
I just assumed the width wouldn't matter as long as it kept the pleats from stretching. Mine is very thin and adds no bulk so I just took it from the fell on up.
As far as the hair canvas, I thought it was in the apron area. How exactly does it keep the pleats from buckling?
I don't have my book with me, sorry.

[Barb T]

The width does matter. The stabilizer is a rectangle, but, if the pleats at the hip are bigger than the pleats at the waist, you can't fit a rectangle to something that is actually an arc. So, you put in something just wide enough to sew in right at the waist. And this is OK, because it's really only at the waist where you're pulling on the kilt straps that you need to keep the kilt from stretching.

The canvas that you put in on top of the stabilizer and that does go from the top of the kilt to the bottom of the fell is put in pleated so that the canvas can be wider at the hip end of the pleats and narrower at the waist end. Kind of like those luggage conveyers in the the airport that have the overlapping panels that slide together along the straight-aways of the luggage carousel and fan where the conveyor belt goes around a corner.

What do I mean by buckling? This isn't as much of a problem if you only put a waist buckle on a kilt, but most kilts nowadays are made with two buckles. If someone buckles the waist buckle tight, and then buckles the hip buckle tight, the back of the kilt needs to be pretty stiff to keep it from bunching up between the hips and the top of the kilt and creating folds across the pleats. The problem is even worse if the kilts has loops and someone wears a belt through the loops - that can really pull up the kilt and cause folds across the pleats. Having pleats in the canvas also stiffens the pleats in a top-bottom direction but gives it a lot of flexibility across the pleats.

Barb

[JimB]

I think I've finally got it.
Thanks Barb!
I can see where the width would matter on most kilts and I will keep that in mind if I ever make one for anyone else. It didn't really matter much for me because my waist and hip measurement are so similar. I was able to make the fabric lay just fine as it was.
I do see the advantage now of the hair canvas, and that's good to know before I actually put belts on my kilts. So far I've only been using velcro.
But I get the idea. Finally.
Thanks again Barb!

[Barb T]

I finally managed to remember to take a picture of a kilt with the stabilizer strip sewn in. I've also included a closeup so that you can see how the stitching is done.

Barb