Cold water wash?

[turpin]

I haven't washed any of my wool kilts yet, but my Gordon appears a bit dingy to me. Not in spots, but generally, especiall the front apron.

I don't want to dry clean it AT ALL. I've been thinking about basting the pleats, then dipping it in and out of a tub of cold water several times, allowing it to dry hanging, then pressing it befroe removing the basting.

I'm looking for feedback from anyone who has done this, or has another good way to clean a sort of marginally dingy kilt.

[BEEDEE]

What is the material? I have recently successfully dry cleaned a SWK wool Lamont. I would only consider water on a PV or acrylic material.

Brian

[auld argonian]

I think that the fear is that a dry cleaner would end up pressing the pleats the wrong way and ruin the kilt...that's why basting the pleats before cleaning has been suggested.

That fella at the West Coast Kilts had a page on care and feeding:

http://westcoastkilts.com/kilt-cleaning.php

Best

AA

[turpin]

Dry cleaning also removes natural lanolin from the wool, and makes it somehow more susceptible to getting dirty. If you can cold water wash wool hose, why not dunk and swish a kilt?

I know the topic of kilt cleaning comes up periodically but I only remember one post i the distant past about someone doing this, and don't recall the replies to it, if any.

Both Barb T, Robert Macdonald, and Kathy Lare recommend against dry cleaning.

[MacWage]

Bob Martin's advise in the "All Bout Your Kilt" book:
Fill bath tub with 9 inches of cold water. Use a decent amount of Woolite, or like mild soap-> Bob says 12 capfulls, but uses a soap, not woolite
Swish kilt around in water to get it throughly soaped and wet.
Soak for 30-45 minutes. FOLDED KILT, as wearing, face/front apron DOWN (where most dirt should be).
Pull out, letting water drip. I did a bit of GENTLY squeezing to get the excess water out.
take kilt outside and hang (I used some lawn chairs).
RINSE THOROUGHLY with hose (cool water). Make sure to get the soap OUT of ALL the creases and crevases.
Hang put to dry (preferably out of direct sunlight. (I used 3 clip pants/skirt hangers strung along the kilt and hung off my deck rail with a BUSH between the kilt and the sun.)
Let dry fully.
(I was AMAZED at HOW WELL the pleats creases made it through all this.)
Bast and repress.

Like Bob, I will add: DO AT YOUR OWN RISK, as there are factors I CANNOT control when YOU do it. If you screw up your kilt (shouldn't be a problem), it's YOUR FAULT.



I've done it to 2 kilts before a repress, so as to not press-in grime, which there didn't seem to be. They worked fine.
Remember, the ENEMIES of wool (most types, anyways) is not so much water BUT-> HEAT and AGITATION. Worsted should come out the above cleaning in fine shape. My MacNeil and X Marks kilts did.

[auld argonian]

Just as an interesting aside/tangent...I just got done ordering a couple of bars of Dr. Bronner's Peppermint bar soap...made with genuine hemp oil for moisturizing wonderfullness. The same company makes their soap in a liquid form and in several other scents (and unscented, I imagine). This is supposed to be a very gentle all-purpose soap...use it on yer face, as shampoo, wash yer clothes in it, wash your dog with it, etc. Wonder if it would make a good gentle kilt wash? The prospect of having a slightly peppermint scented kilt sounds rather appealing...

Best

AA

[way2fractious]

Washing a wool kilt is about the same as washing a down sleeping bag. Wet, they are very heavy, have to be handled very carefully, and should be supported when moved.

A few months ago I washed an extremely dirty kilt acquired on eBay. I could feel the grime and dirt, and see the stickers it had acquired from some really bad "storage" techniques. My suggestion is that you NOT baste the pleats before washing, because the basting thread likely will not stand up to the stresses it has to endure. Basting and pressing will take place after a day or two of the kilt drying.

Find a place you can easily access and get close to your work, such as a bathtub, a large laundry sink, or a large plastic storage tub. Lay the kilt in it and more than generously cover it with cold water (normal temps, not icy.) Add Woolite and start working the suds through the fabric by pressing down on it with your hands. Slide your hands under and roll the kilt over as you work, being very careful not to pull it by the pleats and strain the stitching and steeking. Drain the sudsy water, pressing out most of the excess water, but don't get carried away. Rinse with clear water, probably twice, using the same handling techniques.

After the last rinse, the kilt can be lifted by gathering up the top of it at the waistband (not necessarily rolled up) and lifted with the other hand supporting the mass about halfway down its length. Then, just like a wool sweater, the kilt is spread out nearly flat and gently shaped, and allowed to drip and dry. Outdoors, indoors, doesn't matter, as long as there is decent air circulation. After the first few hours of dripping the kilt becomes much lighter and can be turned as needed. You may want to just generally smooth the fabric by hand a couple times while it dries. Wearing the unpressed kilt around the house or yard allows body heat, sunshine, and air circulation to help it dry.

It doesn't have to be bone dry to baste up the pleats again, but drier rather than wetter. The pleat creases should still be very evident, just a whole lot "softer" than before. The basting will go more quickly than newly making a kilt.

With my task, I used a plastic storage tub in the bathtub. It took two washings to remove all the dirt. The kilt was spread on a small wooden drying rack from Wal-Mart, indoors, and it took several towels on the floor under it to catch all the dripping water. More than two full days were needed for the many layers of the military box pleats to completely dry. After basting and pressing, the kilt looked great - a very different look than what I started with.

For all the fear instilled by "conventional wisdom" about the absolute necessity of dry cleaning, what "traditional wisdom" tells me is that long before volatile solvents were invented people washed their kilts and other clothes.

[thescot]

AA and MacWage have said it all. I second what they have put hear, and the only addition I add is the caveat against wringing it out. Better to let the water drip for several days than to wring out the wool.

I even wash all my bonnets in a similar fashion, especially since they get pretty grimy when I wear them in warm weather and sweat all over them.

The real trick in all this is patience--be gentle but thorough.

Good luck.

[turpin]

I think I got the answer I was looking for. Thanks to John, Jim, and W2F. This type of info should go in the tutorial section right by Wizard's excellent tome on pressing because, as I said, it keeps coming up.

[Barb T]

And you can avoid lots of drips if you take several layers of towels (be careful about using towels that might bleed color onto your kilt!!), lay them on the floor, and lay the drippy kilt carefull on top of the towels. Lay several more towels on top, and roll the whole thing loosely. Lean on the pile a little to help the towels soak up the worst of the water. Then unroll, and hang as Way2F has suggested.

Barb