is ironing your kilt a problem? questions & suggestion

[awoodfellow]

i have found the job of ironing a kilt a bit of trouble. so in working with this quandry i have put on my woodcrafters thinking cap...

i'm going to build a kilt ironing board, "The Kiltable", and i'm asking for input from the trenches.

a quick overview ...

this will be a foldable and padded table. think of one of the old style metal folding picnic tables. the prototype kiltable will not have legs on it. it will fold open from the center and lay flat on the floor for now.

one of the inherent problems of ironing a kilt is lining up pleats and getting them square on the mark with no puckering of the inner pleats.

the kilt must be tight in place so no movement is made whilst ironing. so a narrow lock down tool of some sort is needed.

i am thinking of creating a pleat tool, similar to a yard stick only thinner made of a hard wood that can easily slide into the pleats allowing a quick snap of the pleat tool to square up the pleat, both inner and outer.

the table itself would be approx 30" wide and depending on your suggestions, any where from 6' to 8' in length. remember, this folds in the middle, will be thin, perhaps 3" thick when folded, and will be easily hidden by sliding under your bed or behind the closet door.

of course, i just want to build this to see if it would have any benefit, so ....

i would like your thoughts on this .... length, width, weight for moving around, the pleat tool suggestion , and any comments or ideas that you think would make something like this work . or even if it's worth doing ....

thanks for your time folks,

ambrose

[bubba]

I wonder how well Formica would work for the pleating tool. The stuff is thin and flexible.

[Raphael]

I just use my Coffee Table.

[bubba]

I have a fold up table I use for cutting, layout, hand stitching and ironing kilts. Opened up it's 36" x 59". Folded down it's 36" x 12". I bought it at a craft store some time ago and found it work pretty well. Easy to roll it into an out of the way corner when not in use.

[bubba]

Having considered your project I have to add this. Laying it on the floor will probably cause a bit of back pain.Ideally, it should be at waist height so you can reach any point on the surface without stressing your back.

[Jimmy Carbomb]

A REAL good material for the table top is the white melamine board that you can get at any home center. Get it with a 3 foot width and a 6 foot length, and it works GREAT. The material repels water, won't warp, and is what we used at the shop.

Another tip is to iron the aprons seperate from the pleats. No weird little lines that way.

As for the pleats, try hanging it on a shower curtain rod (or something similar) and STEAM the things first. Usually (with a good kilt) they will drop right into place and require MUCH less ironing.

[mcnice]

what about snaps similar to those from a good kilt hanger. to straighten the kilt up and on its sides.

[Riverkilt]

I followed Ham and other's suggestions from earlier postings and just iron on the carpet.

I've found that if I open the kilt up and then sort of toss it up in the air a few feet off the floor the airborne time give it a chance to align itself pretty well by the time it lands on the carpet. Then I just straighten the pleats a bit before ironing.

If I try to lay it on the carpet myself I wind up doing a lot of tugging and rearranging. I think my kilts enjoy flying.

Just to clarify, that's for my non-traditionals...not sure wool would work that way.

[mcnice]

yes down the floor is best. table gets unnice look and ironing board is horror.

[Barb T]

Hi Ambrose

Just a couple of thoughts on making a wide pressing table. If a kilt is shaped at all from hips to waist (i.e., if the stitched part of the pleats are even slightly bigger at the hips than at the waist), it's impossible to lay the kilt out on a flat surface and have the pleats straight (the kilt wants to "fan"). The more shaping, the harder it is to lay the kilt flat with the pleats straight. The easy solution, of course, is to hang the stitched part of the pleats (the fell) over the tapered end of an ironing board to accommodate the taper; then the unstitched part of the pleats can be lined up nice and parallel. The wider the surface the harder this is to accomplish. So, I wouldn't be inclined to have a pressing surface 30" wide. If you want something that wide, I'd at least taper the end.

I honestly think that the pressing sticks would be more trouble than they're worth. The easiest solution to my mind is simply to baste the bottom edge of the kilt by hand to hold the pleats in the right place (takes only about 5 minutes, 10 at the most if you do more than one line of basting - use big stitches), plop the kilt onto an ironing board, and press. Once the kilt is cool and dry, slip the basting stitches out, and you're done.

Just remember to use a damp press cloth on top of the tartan so that you don't make shiny spots on the kilt, and remember to press both sides of the kilt.

Cheers!