How to tell a professional how to press a kilt

[OC Richard]

What's odd is that myself and several pipers I know have sent their kilts to ordinary dry-cleaners, with no basting and no special instructions, and our kilts have come back pressed correctly.

I think that the original pressing is so clear that it's obvious to them, and they just follow along.

But I've heard and seen horror stories! Here's the worst example I have a photo of, a boxpleated military kilt, and they've pressed them into knife pleats, ignoring the white lines which are supposed to go down the length of each pleat



I had my first taste of pressing a kilt, the kilt I made in Elsie Stuehmeyer's class, last week. Even with all the pleats basted and with a big press and a big ham it's still a lot of work.

Then I had to press one of our band kilts, because it had been hemmed up at some point and I had to take the hem out and re-press it. All I had was an ironing board and an iron! No ham. Jeeze that was a pain! It would have saved time, in the long run, if I had basted it first. It takes forever to iron unbasted pleats right.