Military Kilt repairs

[bonnie heather]

Wow! You deserve a medal for rescuing this kilt!

Did the cut out part of the pleats unravel at all when the kilt was washed?
Even if that didn't happen, how close can a person get to the cut edge when stitching the new felling in doing a repair or alteration?

...Bonnie

[ChattanCat]

Wow! You deserve a medal for rescuing this kilt!

Did the cut out part of the pleats unravel at all when the kilt was washed?
Even if that didn't happen, how close can a person get to the cut edge when stitching the new felling in doing a repair or alteration?

...Bonnie

Bonnie,

It is recommended to have 1/2" of good material. The pictures posted so far look like there may be less than 1/2". Steve, can you clarify?

[Pleater]

As an eternal optimist myself, I can only step back and bow to a master - that looks like something where you could spend months trying to reweave the edges to get enough fabric to sew a seam.

I was thinking, maybe some of that really ultra light weight iron on interfacing could help to stabilise the edges of the cut outs and give you something to work with - maybe tease out the weft threads onto one piece and the warp onto another, laid flat and untangled, and then you would not be losing anything of the original but it would hold the rest against further fraying.

I did reweave the edge of a cloak once, tying on sewing cotton with rolling hitches to the ends of the threads and using cut up bamboo skewers as bobbins to move the individual threads of warp and weft back into place.

Once it was all back together again I sewed on an edging tape and then glued the ends of the threads to it before turning up the hem.

I can't help thinking that it might be an idea to offer to 'service' older kilts now, before they start to disintegrate as badly as that one.

[ChattanCat]

This pic alone makes it appear that it is a lost cause...

I do believe there is sufficient material to make most if not all of the pleat stitching. If you look close, the width of the pleat is only a little wider than the stripe. Therefore, as long as you have some dark material, you should be fine.

Methinks that it would certainly be cheaper to just make a new kilt but there is history there. I do have to ask though, in your opinion was this kilt built properly by a master kilt builder?

Labor would probably be a wash but you would need to get more material.

I was thinking, maybe some of that really ultra light weight iron on interfacing could help to stabilise the edges of the cut outs and give you something to work with - maybe tease out the weft threads onto one piece and the warp onto another, laid flat and untangled, and then you would not be losing anything of the original but it would hold the rest against further fraying.

I did reweave the edge of a cloak once, tying on sewing cotton with rolling hitches to the ends of the threads and using cut up bamboo skewers as bobbins to move the individual threads of warp and weft back into place.

Once it was all back together again I sewed on an edging tape and then glued the ends of the threads to it before turning up the hem.

I can't help thinking that it might be an idea to offer to 'service' older kilts now, before they start to disintegrate as badly as that one.

Glue? In a knife pleated kilt?

[sydnie7]

[snip]Glue? In a knife pleated kilt?

No, if you read the post, it was in the repair of a cloak. Given the extent of the implied damage (reweaving shreds of fabric enough to create an edge that could be stabilized), extreme measures and innovative tactics were employed to salvage a presumably treasured item.

Making kilts from pristine lengths of whole cloth may involve time-honored and traditional methods of construction. Restoration of something the dog chewed up is a whole 'nother story.