Hi folks

Because this has come up a bunch of times, I thought it might be useful to make a post that explains how to baste a kilt for pressing. It truly doesn't take very long to do, and it makes a huge difference in the kind of quality job you can do. And, if you take it to a dry cleaner to have it pressed, you should absolutely take the time to baste the pleats, or the cleaner is likely to splay the pleats before pressing and ruin them.

The crucial thing is to make sure that the pleats are basted absolutely the same width from the bottom of the fell to the bottom of the kilt, as in the drawing below:



Thread a needle with white basting thread. Lay the kilt out in your lap with the top edge to the left and the pleats across your lap. Start at the bottom of the kilt at the apron edge. Pick up the apron edge plus the first pleat. Lap the apron edge onto the first pleat at the right point, and take a couple of big stitches (1/2-3/4") through all four thicknesses:



Then pick up the next pleat, lap the previous pleat onto it at the right place, carry the thread from the first stitches, and take two or three stitches through four thicknesses. Because you work your way across the kilt picking up only one pleat at a time, you aren't trying to sew a whole pile of unwieldy cloth all at once.



Work your way across the bottom of the kilt. Make another row just below the bottom of the fell, and a couple more in between. The diagrams shows three stitches in each pleat, but I've found that two holds just fine and takes less time to do:



When it comes time to take out the basting stitches, don't use anything sharp that could snag or cut the kilt. Don't use scissors, a knife, or a seam ripper. Get something blunt like a big knitting needle or a crochet hook. I use a pair of blunt tip tweezers. Rather than cutting the threads and pulling out all the little bits, I just slip the blade of the tweezers under each thread and pull it back through the cloth.

Hope this helps!