Kilt Hang Drying - Rack, Hangers and clothespins.

[tundramanq]

I built this drying rack before my kilted days. It is made out of a cheap plastic 5 foot, 5 shelf rack kit, a length of PVC pipe, 2 low velocity (7 Watt) 4 inch boxer (equipment) fans, 2 switches - one is a one hour timer switch, and miscellaneous items I had in my "treasure room"(junk).

I only used the feet, 2 racks and the post pieces of the kit. The top post piece is rounded to accept the weight of the PVC pipe and it's cargo. The pipe is attached with steel plumbers tape and screws. The lateral load is taken on the right end by the pipe end fitting into a hole in the piece of trim board braded to the wall (small holes). The left end is steadied by a steel plumbers tape strap affixed to the ceiling where a joist is behind it ( my ceiling is only 7 foot high).

The upper shelf has the fans (attached with zip ties) and the switches and wiring ( the switches are single pole. wired in parallel - connections are soldered and heat shrink insulated for the potentially drippy clothes)

The bottom shelf holds the laundry basket or the two undercounter baskets pictured that I later found - now have 3 baskets to presort clothes as I take them off.

All the "junk" on and around the rack are for speciic non kilt clothes ( the KFC chicken bucket is my Tilly hat drying rack, the upside down wood piece leaning against the wall is for drying shoes -- etc.)

Using this rack and the rest of the stuff, It takes me less than 7 minutes to get a kilt from the washer, lay it out, put it on the clip hangers, put them on the third hanger on rack then straighten and pin the pleats and get back on the couch with a nice beverage.
About all kilts except the Utilikit Workmans are bone dry in 3-4 hours, the denim and duck Workmans take 8 hours to overnight. I almost never have to press a Utilikit or PV traditional.


I bought a box of 100 of these 14" heavy (jumbo) duty, swivel, 2 clip hangers. With 2, 3 or 4 clips they hold any cloth kilt well - wet or dry - and spread the load around so the pleats store flat. It's easy to scavenge clips from one hanger for another hanger. For the drying rack I have 5 clips on one and 6 on the other hanger. These were originally for Utilikilts, it seemes to handle all the kilts well. I then hang it on the third swivel hanger which has movable binder clips on its spine to space the front and back of the kilt apart as needed allowing it to hang in a more "on your body" manner and open the interior up to good airflow from the fans. This third swivel allows you to spin the kilt around for the pinning and straightening process.


Depending on the kilt and type fabric I use weighted or unweighted wooden clothes pins. These are made with half ounce and one ounce swivel fishing weights easily strung on the spring wire of the clothespins - after you get the technique down The center pictured are the ones using the single 1 oz weights as they need to lay close together for reverse kingesse? and box pleats where two pleat knife edges come together.The single weight will push the pins together keeping them straight.

I only pin the outer knife edges together and to the single layer of the next pleat fabric since I straighten the back pleats by a slight tug as I am pinning. This shortens the drying time a lot. After all is pinned, I run my finger down inside each pleat top to bottom to insure there are no rumples. Turn the fans on and walk away.


Warning, If you have females in the house you may have to remove their undies and clothes from the rack to hang your kilt It will be real popular for all clothes. It is a lot quicker and better than having them strung all over the bathroom - isn't it?

[TheOfficialBren]

Very clever! Thumbs up.

[KenB]

Well thought out. Very innovative.

[tundramanq]

I have long been in the habit of half drying clothes in the dryer and letting them hang dry the rest of the way. It really cuts down on color fading and wrinkles as the fabric never gets real hot. I like knits and stretchy clothes - heat is the killer of lycra and spandex. I have quite a few of these knit shirts containing lycra that are well over 20 years old and still look like new. Directly out of the washer to hanger clothes would get the hanger set bumps and wrinkles from the shear weight of the water in them. This solves the issues and saves a few kilowatts. Really hate the iron here
Some day I will run a wool kilt through this setup - I suspect it will work well. Most "dryclean only" clothes are the result of poor design, poor workmanship or fragile fabrics. My skin itches (and the occasional rash) from the solvents used to dry clean, so I (gently) water wash. It either survives or ends up in the land fill where it belongs. To date, I don't recall any failures.

BTW, the acrylic Heratage of Ireland from Heratage of Scotland, kilt pills like crazy - new and after washing. It comes through this cleaning A-OK. The pilling happens during wearing.

The rack design took about 10 years to evolve from floor fans and a chin up bar in a doorway. Got tired of ducking clothes and fans in the doorway. This rack has been in use about 16 years - am amazed the plastic hasn't gotten brittle over time.

[Tobus]

I bought a box of 100 of these 14" heavy (jumbo) duty, swivel, 2 clip hangers. With 2, 3 or 4 clips they hold any cloth kilt well - wet or dry - and spread the load around so the pleats store flat. It's easy to scavenge clips from one hanger for another hanger.

I've done the same thing using 'skirt hangers' from the local Walmart or Target. It's a simple thing to bend the plastic open just enough to slip out the metal rod, slide off the clips, and put them on another hanger. It's convenient that they sell these in packs of 3, so a single pack of hangers gives me one kilt hanger with 6 clips. I use them for hanging my kilts in their garment bags, and the distribution of the clips tends to even out the stresses so that it doesn't stretch the fabric over time. If the middle of the metal rod starts to sag, it's easy enough to support it in the middle by tying a wire or cord from the middle of the hanger, down around the rod.

I had tried the wooden slat style hangers before, but they're never wide enough for a kilt. So the outside edges of the kilt end up drooping over time. Plus the wooden slat always interferes with the buckles on a traditional kilt. This solution with the clips seems to work better.

[tundramanq]

I got these from National Hanger Company ( NAHANCO ) when even with 4 clips some of the heavyer or slicker fabric kilts would fall off in the closet with the lighter clip hangers.
The metal clips have plastic grip pads. 100 for $41 - $70.95 with shipping and handling . But, for most, this is a lifetime supply.
http://www.nahanco.com/clear-w-metal...ck-hanger.html

These in the 4 clip mode hold my heavyest kilt, even hanging in my trucks "kilt rack" . I use two 5 clip hangers with a shower ring to cross link the two for the leather kilts. The link keeps me from trying to take a half kilt out of the closet. There are limits with the heavy/slick leathers. Hooking belt loops to hang tends to stretch them out.
The wood slat hangers, yes, are all narrow and block airflow on the drying rack making the dry time on the "last to dry" waistband area real long. Am betting, over the long haul, the wood will warp from the dampness. I havent found a surface wood finish that didn't evenually fail. The penetrating oil finishes will probably transfer to the kilt - try getting hardened tung oil out of a fabric .