storage?

[Zardoz]

One warning about storing leather next to plastic.

There sometimes occur odd interactions between the oils in the two materials, and you can see discolouration on the plastics and drying in the leathers.

If you store leather in these plastic tote/storage systems, you'd be wise to place some fabric between the sporrans and the plastic itself. Again, old pillowcases would work.

ith:

Actually, while I do line them with some acid free paper, I choose the Sterilite brand products over a lot of cheaper ones out there because they are made of polypropylene and polyethylene that are acid free and use no PVCs, Latex, Teflon, fungicides, or antibacterial chemicals in their manufacturing process. They are safe for photos, fabrics, leather, paper and food storage.
Plus- they are made in the USofA.

[Gryphon57]

*** on using Sterilite. I use one of their containers to store my socks, sporrans, kilt pens, extra straps, blades, etc. It keeps everything dust free and easily accessible. Kilts and jackets are stored in zippered garment bags and shoes in their boxes. It's good to be able to keep things easy to find and protected.

[Silent Raven]

thanks every one! i guess ill have to look into getting some containers for my sporrans and things and just keep hanging everything else. i do like the zippered pillow case idea as well!

[Newfoundlander]

Hello,

Sometimes leaving a kilt hanging can cause the pleats to splay out and you may have to periodically need to re-press. This, of course, if dependant on the fabric, the weight, and if your pleats are just pressed in or if they are sewn with an invisible stitch. My advice is to roll your kilt and lay it flat in a drawer. This is a trick that I learned for a highland regimental kilt, and one I still use on my own kilt today. (I can't speak to PV kilts, as I've only ever had and done this with heavyweight, or regimental weight wool)

The method is easy:
1. Lay your kilt out flat with the lining facing down, and the pleats flat and neatly arranged. The kilt will be in an arc, and not a rectangle shape (you'll see what I mean when you do it).
2. Start with the top of the kilt toward you, and on your left-hand side fold the inner apron in half, but you can also to 1/3's if you desire a smaller roll.
3. Continue rolling the kilt from left to right, making sure to grab the pleats at the bottom as you roll to keep them tightly together.

This will ensure that the pleats all stay aligned and are not wrinkled, and when you unfold the kilt all the pleats will hang as they're supposed to and the thickness of the roll itself will prevent a crease from forming in the outer apron. From here lay your kilt out flat. I use a wide and long rubbermade container with some anti moth cedar chips in it (this also give you a subtle and barely detectable cedar smell, quite manly! Ha).

I've taken a kilt rolled in this manner and jammed it in my duffel bag and jumped aboard a c-130 Hercules and sat on my duffel bag whilst flying across Canada, only to have that bag checked on an international flight to be handled God knows how, and arrive 21 hours later with not even a wrinkle. Just the past weekend as well, I flew to San Jose for a wedding with my kilt in my duffel and same thing, not a wrinkle and the pleats all hang beautifully (at least the kilt is fine fettle, the wearer now, that's a different story, haha).

My sporran, belt, flashes, etc, I toss in the container as well, no worries there. If you have a dress sporran, especially a long horsehair sporran, keeping that in a bag or sleeve will help the fibres stay neat. Some breathable fleece, or other fabric is good here. Leather day-wear sporrans I just toss in as is.

My jackets and waistcoats I keep in a good breathable garment bag hanging in the closet with a couple cedar chips as well.

[mookien]

Josh: If you have the floor space, you could get an inexpensive chest of drawers from a garage sale, for example.

My son had an old "6-drawers in 2 columns" chest that he gave me. We bought one box of laminate cedar flooring for about $30 and cut it into pieces to line the bottoms, sides, front, and back of each drawer. Using Loctite Power Grab (which turned out to be very easy to use) we glued each board in place.

So, I ended up with a cedar chest of drawers (inside, anyway) on the cheap. It works great for all my accoutrement. I also place sachets of potpourri (from Bed, Bath, and "Way" Beyond) in each drawer for extra protection. So far, no moths.

I placed the extra cedar boards and "scraps" in the closet in which I hang my kilts on Order of the Gael kilt hangers. They are expensive ($19.29), but they work very well and have room for plaids, etc. as well as the kilt.

Good luck whichever way you decide to go.

John

[Cygnus]

While we don't usually have problems with moths around these parts, they do get into things on rare occasion and this thread inspired me to get the materials needed to protect my highland attire.

It turns out that two lightweight garment bags were just about the same price as two zippered pillow covers and, since the garment bags conveniently zip up the front, I purchased those. I also found some cedar scraps for about $7 and hung those from the top of the hangers and put some down in the bottom of the bags with my hose, garters, etc.

In the end I spent under $13 and now have everything in garment bags with cedar. Hopefully it does the trick.

I'll have to remember the Sterilite recommendation for the future as my sporrans still need a place to live.

Speaking of, does anybody have recommendations for storing a horse- or goat-hair sporran?

[Silent Raven]

well i went out and got a sterilite container for all my smaller object and i am quite pleased.



got my 2 sporran, belt, 3 sets of flashes, bow tie and sgian all in there nicely and i can also just plop my blamoral right on top. if any one is wondering its the 16 quart sterlitle stackable (although i only got one) drawer container. i also tossed a cedar block in there for good measure.

[mookien]

Great! Everything looks snug as a bug in a rug. I'd put more cedar and/or potpourri in it, though. Good luck.