I'm as Thick as two short planks

[Lachlan09]

Why did I do it - why did I do it ??????

A while ago, I decide my pleats needed refreshing and sharpening up on my 39 year old kilt. So I ironed my kilt, every pleat steamed and ironed individually to give sharp pleats. Unfortunately, I didn't know enough to bind the pleats together first, so ever since then my kilt looks like an open book with all the pleats pointing outwards !!

Help !!!!!

[WClarkB]

no hope for it
you need to carefully baste the pleats, see the tutorial by Bev T in the forum and you might save the situation

The trick is to get each pleat parallel from fell to hem and sewn to its neighbors as a block with 5 or more lines of basting

[Pleater]

I suspect that it might be necessary to carefully damp the kilt with a sponge and warm water, and then to press out all those creases, perhaps starting with the ones on the inside - that is the ones hidden from public view, as you need to sort out just where the folds need to be.

Whilst the kilt is still warm and pliable put it on and walk around, see if the pleats will fall into their proper shape.

Unfortunately, wool fabric can be deformed, that is the basis of tailoring, and you might have stretched the inner part of the pleat so it is exerting a push which is trying to roll the pleat open.

Hopefully hanging as worn will encourage the pleats back into shape, and the correct place for the inner folds will become obvious and they can be pressed in without too much trouble.

If the kilt looks no better with the inner folds removed then you need to check that the outside folds are straight on the grain of the fabric from the edge of the fell to the selvage, and then carefully form the pleats again - they should be the same width at the selvage as at the edge of the fell, so you can baste them in place and press them flat again.

Remember that there is shaping in the fell so use the pointed end of the ironing board for the waist end and maintain the shape rather than pressing it out

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[thescot]

Ooooh. Bad news. It sucks to be you right now.

Good luck on fixing the thing. The good news is that wool is pretty forgiving unless you tear it or something. Good luck

[Bugbear]

I keep laughing at the title.

I guess what happened here is that the creases, or the folds of the pleats on the inside of the kilt, moved during the pressing without the basting to hold it all in place.

I'm also guessing that correcting it will involve measuring each pleat at the fell and bottom.


Barb T. or the Wizard of BC might be able to help.

[Highlander31]

Ouch. If you haven't already done so, post on the DIY forum. You should be able to get plenty of helpful advice. Good luck.

[Barb T]

There's a tutorial on XMarks for basting pleats for pressing:

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/b...x.html?t=35190

[Stravaiger]

It's probably heresy..... but I've never basted the pleats on any of my wool kilts before pressing them with a steam iron, and I've always had a good result. The main reason for not basting is that it's usually only a few pleats that need crisping up after I've been sitting on a kilt that's still wet from the rain. I've found that using good quality iron & pressing each section heavily, rather than running the iron over the fabric tends to work well.

Flak-jacket on....

[Dirka Skene]

Thick as a WHAT?!

[WClarkB]

It's probably heresy..... but I've never basted the pleats on any of my wool kilts before pressing them with a steam iron, and I've always had a good result. The main reason for not basting is that it's usually only a few pleats that need crisping up after I've been sitting on a kilt that's still wet from the rain. I've found that using good quality iron & pressing each section heavily, rather than running the iron over the fabric tends to work well.

Flak-jacket on....

((riffling thru the rule book))
Yep,that's what we got here ----> heresy