A Greeting and an Inquiry

[urbanmyth]

Hello all! I am a brand new kilt owner. My grandmother, in all her wonderful generosity, just completed an X-Kilt for me in khaki duck cloth. I love it. Only thing is, it wrinkles if I even THINK of sitting down. Can any of you more experienced X-Kilters offer some advice in this regard? Or is it just something I have to live with?

Thank you much!

[Mael Coluim]

Pick yourself up a cheap hand steamer from a local big box store. And give the pleats and apron a steaming before setting out each time you wear it.

[urbanmyth]

Does this help prevent future wrinkles as well? A mere 20 minute car ride had the rear most pleats all kinds of scraggly.

[Riverkilt]

That's what I love about leather kilts and 16 ounce hand sewn wool kilts - they're difficult to wrinkle.

Meantime, the answer is sweeping your pleats when you sit down (there's a tutorial on the forum somewhere) and the hand steamer.

Also, when you wash the kilt, hang dry it with weighted clamps on the bottom of the pleats so they are pulled straight as they dry - saves wrestling with the kilt to iron it.

And, as above, steamer, steamer, steamer....

[ThistleDown]

Welcome, urbanmyth, from Inverness-shire and British Columbia. Yours is a common new-world problem and I am sure there will be answers found for you in this thread. The problem you have is love and respect for your grandmother and this superb piece of her skill she has given you, and the fact that cotton canvas is prone to wrinkling. Weigh the two side and listen to the fine advice offered. I think, in the end, you will wear her kilt when you are standing with her, and purchase another, in wool or fine pv, to wear on other occasions.

[Chas]

Hello urbanmyth,

Welcome to XMarks from the other side of the Atlantic in Norfolk, England.

Pleatsweeping - keeps the creases at bay and stops you sitting on a bundle of cloth.

Regards

Chas

[O'Searcaigh]

Hello and from The Big South Fork, north central Tennessee!!!
I made an "everyday" kilt from stiff denim that wrinkled quite easily at first but after several washings it became softer and eventually less wrinkles -- no more than for my wool kilts. Perhaps your khaki duck will do the same.

[urbanmyth]

Thank you, thank you! My, my what a warm welcome. I am thinking of purchasing a "casual kilt" from usakilts.com, as they are quite reasonably priced and have my clan's (Colquhoun) tartan available, to supplement the canvas one I already have. It is so unbelievably comfortable, but I do not wish to look so scruffy with the wrinkly rear pleats. I shall do my best to keep them in line.

Are the "casual" kilts from usakilts.com too good to be true?

[tulloch]

Welcome, UM, from the highlands of Central Massachusetts. Good luck with the wrinkles.

[Father Bill]

Welcome to the Great Rabble!