Do kilts have a "break-in" period?

[The Wizard of BC]

Tobus started this thread with a question about a break-in period on a kilt. He said that the kilt seemed to be getting bigger the more he wore it.

One of the possible explanations given was that it was possible that the stabilizer and interfacings were not doing what they are supposed to.

Here is a photo of the back of the kilt looking at the area between the buckles.
This is one of the areas that takes the most stress when a kilt is strapped on.

Please note the distance between the buckles as shown by the ruler.





What I did to evaluate this kilt is to put some stress on the buckles pulling them apart in a similar manner as when the kilt is worn.

Here is the same area of the kilt as before but now with only 4 lbs of pull on it. I would estimate that in normal wear this area of the kilt could have somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 lbs of stress on it.




With just 4 lbs of stress this kilt has stretched over 1" in just the area between the buckles. When I first pulled on the buckles of this kilt this area stretched a full 2" but I did not have a scale to measure the amount of pull so did not want to use this example.

Now, here is a detail of the under-apron strap.




Please note the distortion of the fabric in this area. There is no pull on this strap. It is just laying on my table. This distortion of the fabric is now permanent and is caused by a similar problem as we saw in the back of the kilt.


Next I will begin to figure out what is going on here and come up with a plan to overcome it.