New in the post: Weathered Buchanan

**Barb T** · 16th July 13, 09:57 AM

Hi Shedlock,

Just be very careful when you lay your kilts out on a big flat surface like the floor and then press them. In your picture, the pleats in each of the kilts are splayed in a fan - if you press them that way, they will make the dreaded "wave" when you put the kilt on. When you press a kilt, you should be absolutely sure that the pleats are truly all parallel to one another when you press and that each pleat reveal is exactly the same width from the bottom of the fell to the bottom of the kilt. if you lay the kilt flat with the pleats splayed, you'll press in a reveal that is tapered (wider at the bottom of the kilt and narrower at the bottom of the fell). You don't want that. If you want to press your kilts on a big flat surface, you have to really work at laying them out so that the pleats are parallel and not splayed - you'll get kind of a hump at the hips. It's actually easier to hang the fell end of the kilt off the end of an ironing board and then work all the pleats in a particular section into parallelism on the deck of the ironing board and press that section. Then you won't get a splay, and you won't have to deal with the hump at the hips when you pull all the pleats parallel.

**Shedlock2000** · 17th July 13, 02:50 AM

Originally Posted by sydnie7

A nice collection of photos, thanks! I'm intrigued by the belt you're wearing (shows up best in photo taken at Fine Arts bldg). . . any details on that?

Yup, bog standard US Army webbing belt. I suspend my school bag from it as I hate carrying stuff on my shoulders:

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I have just this week found a British P37 webbing belt which I am hoping will be much more conducive to adjustment for when I wear it over my BD jacket.

**Shedlock2000** · 17th July 13, 02:59 AM

Thank you for the great comments, guys, and thank you for the Ironing advice, Barb! I have messed around on an ironing board - but never quite found a technique that works. I discovered this method only the past few months - so I have never yet experienced the phenomenon that you describe. I will re-address my idea to avoid it. I got the idea from an old photo of a soldier pressing pleats in his battalion:

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Returning to kilt hose - there is a feint blue stripe in the Weathered Buchanan - I wondered if it would go well with the blue, and it did. My only slight dislike, is that the blue of the shirt (which is about the right blue for the kilt) is very different than the lovat blue hose. I would like a lighter pair of blue I think.

**Barb T** · 17th July 13, 04:52 AM

Originally Posted by Shedlock2000

I got the idea from an old photo of a soldier pressing pleats in his battalion:

But if you look at the old picture closely, the pleats that the soldier is _not_ working on are splayed, but he has clearly straightened the pleats he _is_ working on and made them parallel. And he is leaning on the bottom edge with his left hand to make sure that they stay parallel while he presses. This isn't what I saw in your post, where the picture shows the pleats splayed, and your iron is resting on two or three of the splayed pleats. That's where you are begging for trouble.

Because all of the photos you've posted show the kilts from the apron side, I can't really see the pleats once you're wearing the kilt. Can you post a pic of the pleats side, with you wearing the kilt?

**sydnie7** · 17th July 13, 06:32 AM

Originally Posted by Shedlock2000

Yup, bog standard US Army webbing belt. I suspend my school bag from it as I hate carrying stuff on my shoulders: [snip]

Thanks for that. To my untrained eye, the earlier photos seemed to show larger sections of brass which I now see is just more webbing.

**Barb T** · 17th July 13, 08:52 AM

Here's how I use an ironing board for pressing pleats. In the photo below, the fell hangs off the end of the ironing board (to the right in the pic). All that's on the board is the part of the pleats that need to be pressed. In the pic, the pleats are basted, but you can do this carefully without basting by aligning the pleats in sections. Because the tapered part of the kilt hangs off the end of the board, the pleats don't want to splay. I just press my thigh against the near edge of the ironing board to keep the hanging part of the kilt from pulling on the pleats I'm aligning and pressing. Oh - and, yes, I'm not using a press cloth because I have a teflon shoe on the iron. You'll also notice that the ironing board is set really low - I'm only 5'3" tall, and I set the ironing board at a level where I can press with nearly straight arms.

Below, you'll see an (admittedly extreme) version of what happens when you press a kilt with the pleats splayed:

**Dale Seago** · 17th July 13, 12:32 PM

Originally Posted by Barb T

Below, you'll see an (admittedly extreme version) of what happens when you press a kilt with the pleats splayed:

The horror. . .the horror. . .Woe that it cannot be unseen!!!

**Sir Didymous** · 17th July 13, 02:32 PM

Originally Posted by Shedlock2000

I forgot two showing off my hand made Broad bonnet!

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When this was taken, it was 9pm MST, but also 38degrees centigrade still. Super hot!

Attachment 12719
The kilt I am wearing is my 21 year old 'tank' in the Roxburgh Red (ancient). It actually has blue in it - but its the devil itself to try and photograph! I have perhaps two photos in total which show the colours fairly accurately.

Do any of you have any advice for photographing tricky tartans? We tried to use the flash - but that made matters worse!

For those who are curious - these photos are taken at Writing on Stone - which is sacred area to our First Nations brethren.

There are stone-drawings, but mostly all we saw was beautiful scenery and A LOT of mosquitoes!

My wife is currently in a photography Color Management class. She uses me as her default subject for the million plus (it seems) photo shoots each week. Some of the shots involve kilts or other plaid items. The professor's advice was to shoot using the Adobe RGB color space when plaid is involved as it has the most colors in it's spectrum.

**Shedlock2000** · 17th July 13, 09:01 PM

Originally Posted by Barb T

But if you look at the old picture closely, the pleats that the soldier is _not_ working on are splayed, but he has clearly straightened the pleats he _is_ working on and made them parallel. And he is leaning on the bottom edge with his left hand to make sure that they stay parallel while he presses. This isn't what I saw in your post, where the picture shows the pleats splayed, and your iron is resting on two or three of the splayed pleats. That's where you are begging for trouble.

Because all of the photos you've posted show the kilts from the apron side, I can't really see the pleats once you're wearing the kilt. Can you post a pic of the pleats side, with you wearing the kilt?

I will certainly try. Yes, I had not noticed that. I would think it incredibly difficult without the other pleats in line to know what is, and isn't parallel, no?

**Shedlock2000** · 17th July 13, 09:06 PM

This is very interesting, Barb - I had not considered this as a problem, but I do see the result! Hmmm - I will have to try and take a rear photo (a little harder to do on your own) I am not too sure what the kilt looks like from the rear - I have never seen it!

Thanks for the photo advice. This is much the way i used to iron them, but I became very fed up with balancing on one leg to try and hold the drooping apron with the knee so that it did not spread the pleats and hamper Ironing. I will re-assess my Ironing procedure.