Video Clip: Sweeping the pleats

[motorman4life]

Ham, no mention of the "swing" in your video. It is much more pronounced in the double handed sweep, but it gets the pleats going in the right direction at the critical moment and the sweep is really just "batting cleanup" as we say here in America (it is a baseball thing).

The "swing" is an important component that becomes second nature over time.

As for the car, I usually get my feet placed correctly and as I raise my right foot up (for a left door entry), I swing and do a 1 hand sweep. I'm not worried so much about flashing in the car as the door blocks an views, I'm more concerned with keeping the pleats flat and not pressing wrinkles in my kilt with my hot and steamy ***!

[McMurdo]

Thank you for passing on your expertise Hamish. I finally got to see the video, I was having problems with quick time before. It was nice to see the king in action as it were, I have always wondered if I were doing it right, now I know for sure.

Thanks Again.

[Hamish]

Ham, no mention of the "swing" in your video. It is much more pronounced in the double handed sweep, but it gets the pleats going in the right direction at the critical moment and the sweep is really just "batting cleanup" as we say here in America (it is a baseball thing).

The "swing" is an important component that becomes second nature over time.

Somehow I missed this post and I apologise for appearing to have ignored you Mark.

You are correct on that one; there is an element of 'swing' that comes into sitting in a kilt - more so when both one's hands are otherwise occupied. That is possibly a matter for another short video clip! Watch this space!

As for the car, I usually get my feet placed correctly and as I raise my right foot up (for a left door entry), I swing and do a 1 hand sweep. I'm not worried so much about flashing in the car as the door blocks an views, I'm more concerned with keeping the pleats flat and not pressing wrinkles in my kilt with my hot and steamy ***!

Agreed! Flashing really is not an issue when entering or leaving a car. One might think that it would be, but it is not.

Until I got my latest car, a few months ago, I always sat on a padded 'turntable' cushion designed for the elderly and disabled! With that, I slid straight back onto the seat from the open door, raised my legs and swung them around into the footwell - the cushion turning with me and my pleats - and everything would be in place! Now, however, with my new car, the design of the seat is so shaped that the 'turntable' will not fit it and so I've been obliged to dispense with it. Instead, I sit back onto the seat and swing my legs in, arch my back, lifting my bottom from the seat, and sweep the pleats with both hands as I lower myself into the seat. It is important to get the pleats lying as flat and as much in place as possible, before setting out on a journey.

[Hamish]

Thank you for passing on your expertise Hamish. I finally got to see the video, I was having problems with quick time before. It was nice to see the king in action as it were, I have always wondered if I were doing it right, now I know for sure.

Thanks Again.

Not so much 'expertise', McM, more 'experience' I'd say. With some 56 years of kiltwearing under my belt, I guess I have simply learned to do what comes naturally. There was no-one that I could ask how to do this or that when I began my wonderful association with the kilt and so I learned by trial and error!

[ScottInNewHampshire]

Great job, Hamish. Very smooth. This "sweeping" thing does require more than a little bit of practice. To do this properly is very important when getting into the car (with leather seats) in the winter. Can be quite a shocking experience if not "swept" correctly.

[pdcorlis]

More video? Fantastic!

[ozone]

Hamish,

I have seen so many of your posts, it's rather an odd experience to also hear your posts. Nicely done BTW. Of course, only men would need to learn how to sweep a kilt (or cilt) when women seem to be able to do this type of thing from birth :-) Perhaps more videos appear on this site with time (assuming it wouldn't crash the server).

I do have a suggestion: how about a video on how to iron one's pleats after kilt has been washed (or dry cleaned, or what have you). Or does everyone just have professional kilt cleaners do this sort of thing?

[Hamish]

Hamish,

I have seen so many of your posts, it's rather an odd experience to also hear your posts. Nicely done BTW. Of course, only men would need to learn how to sweep a kilt (or cilt) when women seem to be able to do this type of thing from birth :-) Perhaps more videos appear on this site with time (assuming it wouldn't crash the server).

I do have a suggestion: how about a video on how to iron one's pleats after kilt has been washed (or dry cleaned, or what have you). Or does everyone just have professional kilt cleaners do this sort of thing?

That seems like a good suggestion, Ozone. However, I have never washed a kilt (other than a Utilikilt whose pleats are sewn in) in my life, nor have I needed to press (not iron*) a kilt after having it dry-cleaned. The cleaning company does that. So maybe someone else who has done these things could oblige with a video.

*We do not iron our pleats. That conjurs up thoughts of the hot iron being swept across the pleats, which is definitely a 'No,No'! We press our pleats - preferably through a damp cloth - by pressing down with the iron, holding in place for a few seconds, lifting it and pressing down again having moved along a few inches. Do not smooth the iron across the cloth as this can so easily move and stretch the pleats beneath it. Press and lift; press and lift - that's the way.

[IEScotsman]

So much genius in just one post! Great stuff for a rookie like myself. Thank you Hamish!

[Skweres]

thank you very much, now id just like to find an easy way to sit down in a desk at school.......thats an interesting challenge