Kilt storage

[Sherry]

You're most welcome, Mac. I hate to see perfectly good kilts (& keepsakes) ruined. :-)


Sherry

[clancelt]

When storing anything in a cedar chest (or cedar-lined drawers or closets) you need to make sure you are not storing whatever it is (kilt, christening gown, old photos, etc.) touching the wood. Wood is acidic & will cause, over time, rusty brown spots to appear on the keepsake. Place archival tissue paper or some fabric (like an old sheet) as a protective layer between the wood & the item(s) being stored.

Sherry

Thanks Sherry! I did not know that.

[MacConnachie]

In fact, it was high on my priority list of things to do yesterday evening. I'm glad I kept that old double bed cotton bedsheet. I was going to tear it up for emergency bandages, (in the event of whatever, but once an EMT . . .), but it made a very nice liner for the cedar chest. It was a good excuse to get out a couple of heavy woolen winter coats, as well!

As to whether to hang a kilt, or roll it and put it in a cedar chest, I've stored them both ways. While the double hanger on kilts worked fairly well, it didn't seem to matter what I placed on or around the kilts and hangers (cedar oil, cedar blocks, fresh cedar -- but no naptha!) , I occasionally had a few moths around that I had to deal with. None of those critters lived long enough to do any damage, but I figured, "Why give their kind the chance?" All of my kilts, tams, ties, scarves, plaids, etc. are now in the cedar chest. I haven't noticed any problems with wrinkles or creases, yet.

[Whiteraven]

A Gentalman in my church showed me quite a unique way to store a kilt.
He told me that while he was in England with the Canadian Milatary prepairing to storm Juno beach, he was billeted out to stay with a local familly. Well as it turns out the lady of the house got tired of watching him iron his kilt daily. So she showed him how she stored her husbands kilts.
She would close them as if they were on you, then fold them pleats out. (sometimes she said she would roll them). Then she would slip a twine noose or loop around them, at the waist area, and making a loop on the other end hang them bye a nail in the back of the closset.
John told me after that, he stored it that way, and was happy to only have to iron once a month or so. To this day that kilt is hung in his closset in the same style, and the pleats are perfect. Since he told me of this method, the boys and, I have stored our kilts this way.It's great ;-) rarely do I have to iron. Well thats my 2 cents worth, spend it or through them in the wishing well, it's up to you. :mrgreen:

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Bad spellers of America UNTIE

[Alan H]

A Gentalman in my church showed me quite a unique way to store a kilt.
He told me that while he was in England with the Canadian Milatary prepairing to storm Juno beach, he was billeted out to stay with a local familly. Well as it turns out the lady of the house got tired of watching him iron his kilt daily. So she showed him how she stored her husbands kilts.
She would close them as if they were on you, then fold them pleats out. (sometimes she said she would roll them). Then she would slip a twine noose or loop around them, at the waist area, and making a loop on the other end hang them bye a nail in the back of the closset.
John told me after that, he stored it that way, and was happy to only have to iron once a month or so. To this day that kilt is hung in his closset in the same style, and the pleats are perfect. Since he told me of this method, the boys and, I have stored our kilts this way.It's great ;-) rarely do I have to iron. Well thats my 2 cents worth, spend it or through them in the wishing well, it's up to you. :mrgreen:

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Bad spellers of America UNTIE

Huh...son of a gun. Thanks for that one.

I've always folded mine in thirds...folds at the buckles (or where the buckles would be in my USA Kilt and Bear Kilt) and hunjg from a standard trousers hangers.

I *HATE* this method. It puts the "fold" right on the first pleat after the apron on the left side, and in the middle of the reverse pleat on the right. It's hard enough to get those pleats to hang straight, this just made it worse.

I'm now starting to fold them in half, and then half again so that the only fold in the pleats is in the center of the back/bum. Then I hang them on a trousers hanger. we shall see.

[Jewddha]

Whiteraven, I'm definitely going to give that a shot!

[Hamish]

All this talk of "cedar chests"! Where on earth do you find them? Is it an "American" thing? I have never seen them for sale, or even advertised, here in the United Kingdom. My Grandmother used to have a family chest at the foot of her bed, in which treasured fabrics were stored but that, as I recall, was made of Oak. I wonder what happened to it!

I have hung my kilts, for as long as I can remember, on the wooden bar clamp-style hangers with absolutely no ill effects. The trouble is that they are now not so easily found and, with an ever increasing Kollection, .......!

I roll my kilts only when transporting them in suitcases.

One thing I will NOT do is to hang any kilt from the two loops provided by traditional kiltmakers, which was what I was advised to do when I first had my own kilt back in 1950. These just allow the waistband to sag horrendously with the result that the pleats twist out of shape as they hang below it.

[Iolaus]

As I recall, cedar wood keeps moths out of wool fabrics. You can also get cedar "donuts" to slip over hanger hooks, and cedar balls and blocks to set in your drawers with your socks and such. Perhaps your grandmother's family chest was lined with cedar; that's a very common practice.

[MacConnachie]

It's actually the cedar oil that's the irritant or repulsing agent for moths. I had some info somewhere on what it does to them. The problem with the blocks and hanger rings, I've found, is that when they're out in the open air, the oil dissipates. I've noticed that if you sand or scrape the blocks, it brings that distinctive cedar scent back, and that such will make them effective for awhile longer.

I can't tolerate the smell of mothballs, so avoid their use whenever possible. However, millions of folks have been using mothballs effectively for decades.

[Shotdir]

If you use cedar blocks or bricks or even have a cedar lined closet, after about a year, the cedar stops giving off the aromatics.

Turns out the oils evaporate from the very top layer of the wood and repel the little buggers, and it's the moth larvae (worms) that eat the material not the moth. So if you see moths you probably already have holes in something.

You need to sand the surface all over to let the oils come out from the next layer of wood. You only have to remove a few of the cells from the top layer of the tree each time, so the wood lasts a long time.


Hamish,
My great grandmothers chest from Ireland (one of the very few pieces they brought over) was lined with cedar strips on the inside. The outside was some kind of ugly dark wood. She kept her wedding dress and some table cloths in it, as well as my GGF's uniform.
Maybe that's what your family had.

Cedar is still expensive and back then it was even more expensive!