A 60 year old kilt re-build

**georgeetta** · 17th July 12, 04:34 PM

this may be right or not,

if the kilt is this sold ..ask somebody if an oil should be added ..lanolin to help take out some brittleness and save on tears or abrasion damage .

th
d

**Steve Ashton** · 17th July 12, 06:50 PM

If cleaned properly the lanolin will not be leeched out of the wool. In the case of these kilts I can see no degradation of the fibers due to oils being washed out.

Washing a wool kilt with cold water and a mild soap is perfectly acceptable. Personally I use baby shampoo. Even the leather straps come out looking good.

Even dry cleaning by today's methods will not harm wool.

**Pleater** · 29th March 12, 02:15 AM

I was just reflecting that that kilt was probably being worn at about the time of my first birthday.

Also, that there are very few other types of garment which - though obviously having had considerable wear - would firstly come through in such good condition and secondly could be disassembled non distructively and be rebuilt with new underpinning.

The kilt is a very environmentally friendly item of clothing.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

**The Wizard of BC** · 27th March 12, 11:37 PM

The next thing to do is start to dissassemble the kilt.

Here I have un-stitched the liner and folded it back. I was careful not to damage the liner as I feel this is a special kilt and would like to re-use it.

The interfacing in this kilt is made of a cotton canvas not the hair canvas we use today. I see this often in kilts made in the UK.

After 60 years this interfacing is in remarkably good shape. You can see in this photo that while the interfacing is reletivavely intact some of the stitching has broken and come loose. This accounts for the looseness that allowed the distortion of the aprons.
One small detail I found at this stage is a length of bias tape sewn around the strap hole. This is just one small thing and would not have taken much time or effort but is just one of the pieces of evidence that this kilt was made with care.

the only thing I see that is different from a well made kilt of today is the width of the interfacing. You can see that it is only about 2 1/2" wide where today we install interfacings which are 6"-7" wide, or as wide as the Fell is tall..

**NeightRG** · 28th March 12, 12:01 AM

Interesting... Looks like the interfacing does double duty here - canvas and stabilizer.

**The Wizard of BC** · 28th March 12, 12:12 AM

I've now removed the interfacing and exposed the stabilizer.

Just as with the interfacing there is evidence that some of the stitching has failed over the years. Along with the stitching of the interfacing failing the stitching of the stabilizer failing is the reason that the fabric is distorted by the stresses put on this kilt.

The stitch failure allowed the kilt to stretch but not enough to cause the stitching of the pleats to be stressed and fail.

Here is a close up of the stabilizer after I cut it loose.

You can see that even though some of the stitches holding the stabilizer failed they still held enough that the stabilizer took up the load as it is intended to. You can see in this close-up photo that the fabric has been pulled so much that it too has started to fail.

I can conclude that the failure of the cotton thread used to stitch the interfacing allowed the folds in it to expand causing the distortion of the aprons.
The failure of the stitching of the stabilizer has held enough that the stresses have not be transferred to the pleats so this kilt held together.

Remember that the interfacing, stabilizer and the stitching holding them are made of a cotton so more than likely this detereoration of the stitching and fabric is due to sweat. After 60 years even cotton will begin to rot and weaken.

The stabilizer is relativly as narrow as the interfacing was. This could have contributed to their starting to fail. But they lasted 60 years so maybe being this narrow is not as bad a thing as it would appear compared to what we use today.

Another thing I would like to point out is something you can see in the top photo of this post. Just to the right of the strap hole you can see a small white piece of canvas that is sewn in to reinforce the strap hole. Another small detail but another piece that I often find missing in modern traditional kilts.