Traveling with your kilts

[mercop]

I teach for a living and travel by plane and car about 10-15 time a year. Usually long weekends (3-4) days. I stay in a mix of hotels and host's houses. Suitcases are nice if you know you will not need to cover much ground on foot. For me that is usually not the case. I have two bags, the Bag of Evil (EDC survival stuff) which is a SoTech Mission Pack. My other bag is my clothes bag, a Diamondback Tactical Messenger Bag. These two bags allow me to cover lots of ground on foot if need be.

I have only been kilting for six weeks or so but am pretty much full time. So far I have traveled with my kilts twice and pack them the same way I do all my other clothes and it has worked out well. The problem with packing clothes is that most people like are used to folding them, it is bad enough when you have all the same clothes grouped together when you are at home, but when you are packing for a trip with different sizes they get wrinkled fast. This is an easy way to pack, so easy even your kids can do it.

Get all the clothes you plan on taking together. On a clean table, lay them out like this, one on top of the other. As you lay them out line them up the best you can with each other. Stretch and smooth out wrinkles with your hands. Deal with the wrinkles now.

Long sleeve shirts
Short sleeve shirts
P*&nts (waistband at the top)
Kilts (folded as if they were on a hanger, waistband at the top)

Take a one gallon zip lock bag to put your socks, underwear, and undershirts in to create a pillow. I use Kifaru Pull Outs. If you need more than one bag use it, but you only need one for a pillow.

Look at your stack of clothes, The shirts will be wider than the p**nts and kilts. Fold them over the top of them so that they are the same width. Take your pillow and place it in the middle of the pile. Flip the bottom of your stack over the pillow and then flip the top (shirt collars and waistbands) over the bottom. Place your ball of clothes in the bag. When you get to where you are going be take the ball out and lay them out or hang them up. Don't forget your kilt hangers. You should find very few wrinkles in your clothes this way. You can also subload the ball of clothes into a pillow case or laundry bag inside of a larger bag to keep them clean and separated from other things.

I have done this with my Amerikilts as well as my Stadard from USA Kilts and they came out great. Hope this is easy enough to understand. I will try to post pics soon.- George

[Foosinho]

I think I can visualize it, but everybody loves gear pics, so get some photos up! Kifaru is good stuff.

I'm curious to know how you handle your EDC gear. And not just in the context of traveling. I find I'm really missing my pockets and that my sporran can't fit wallet, keys, phone, leatherman, and flashlight, much less anything else I might want to carry.

[Sammac]

I think I can visualize it, but everybody loves gear pics, so get some photos up! Kifaru is good stuff.

I'm curious to know how you handle your EDC gear. And not just in the context of traveling. I find I'm really missing my pockets and that my sporran can't fit wallet, keys, phone, leatherman, and flashlight, much less anything else I might want to carry.

The sporran that I got from Wyvernleatherworks holds my wallet,keys, phone, pocketknife,spare change, chapstick, and a slim digital camera. Alot more than my original sporran. Donnie's workmanship is fantastic, I highly recommend him. I forgot to include my eyeglasses in a hard case as well.

[mercop]

I think I can visualize it, but everybody loves gear pics, so get some photos up! Kifaru is good stuff.

I'm curious to know how you handle your EDC gear. And not just in the context of traveling. I find I'm really missing my pockets and that my sporran can't fit wallet, keys, phone, leatherman, and flashlight, much less anything else I might want to carry.

http://mail.myptsmail.com/mercop/blog/?p=296

[Foosinho]

http://mail.myptsmail.com/mercop/blog/?p=296

I'm guessing you either have a Magic Sporran of Holding, or another bag.

Thanks for the link. I try to carry most of that stuff with me (I have an altoids tin with all kinds of useful stuff crammed in it!), but getting an EDC bag makes a lot of sense.

Would still like to see your packing method in pictures. I've heard the "roll it" method mentioned often before, but alternatives are always good. Especially if you don't have a bag that's 2 feet long.

[Highlander31]

I've carried Shooting Systems' large flight bag and International bag for twenty-five years. The flight bag carries enough for me to survive a couple of days in case the International bag arrives at the destination after I do (which has happened more than once over the years.) The flight bag is now starting to show it's age, and I'm thinking about replacing it with Red Oxx's Air Boss, a carryon, with enough room for a week's worth of clothes.

Like McMurdo, when I pack my kilt, I roll it and slip it into one of my wife's old stockings before packing it in my bag. It arrives at the destination virtually wrinkle free.

http://www.shootingsystems.com/cgi-b...egory_Code=GTB
http://www.shootingsystems.com/cgi-b...Category_Code=
http://www.redoxx.com/Airline-Carry-...100-10/product

[McMurdo]

Kilts are just a wee bit different than the rest of the wardrobe it has been my experience that rolling your kilts with the pleats in then putting the kilts inside a ladies stocking is the best way to ensure a wrinkle free kilt upon arrival. There are many posts about this on the board.

[ForresterModern]

I usually either travel with them on hangers, or rolled as above but put into a kilt roller bag as sold on various sites. Two of them came with a couple kilts I orderd a couple years ago so I use them instead of the stocking.

I recently got a special carry on piece of luggage called a SkyRoll---basically a garment bag wrapped around a 9-10 inch plastic tube enclosed with zippers on each end. I have not had a chance to use it since I got it for xmas, but its basic concept is similar to the above "pillow" roll in that your hang up garments go in the garment section of the bag, along with anything else that can lie flat in the compartments, then you roll it around the tube and there are snaps which hold it in place. Nothing gets folded, instead a gentle roll. The tube has zippers on each end that open for shoes, toiletries, etc..., and the whole thing comes with a shoulder strap and can be used as a carry on on most flights. I think the thing would work great with kilts on hangers as long as your pleats were laid flat prior to rolling, but will have to let you know after trying it out sometime.

http://www.skyroll.com/

Best price around is at The Mens Wearhouse at $100US, unless you catch them with a sale going on. As the web site shows they have a larger rolling version for more money that is not a carry on. I think either would work fine for kilts. At least I hope mine will.

[mercop]

Yep, that is basically the gist. Here is the bag I live out out of, the Diamondback Tactical Messenger Bag. Very room even with my roll.

[Zardoz]

For Father's Day last year my "kids" (2 dogs and cats) got me a travel bag for my highland gear called the "Kilt Kit" form a company in Nevada called Order of the Gael. I don't have any pictures handy, but here is their link, it shows it better anyway;

http://www.orderofthegael.org/kiltkit_detail.htm

http://www.orderofthegael.org/kiltkit.htm

It's a great product if you're going to travel with kilts and all their accessories! The kilt hangers (which are avalible separately) are really cool! I'm gonna use the bag this weekend, so I've already given it a test, and it held 3 kilts, 2 jackets & waistcoats, and assorted shirts, belts, shoes, hose etc .. with no problems, other than all that stuff together is kind o' heavy!