X-Kilt washing/pressing sanity check

[usonian]

So, last week I made an X-kilt out of a medium-weight poly-cotton twill. Prior to sewing I washed, dried, and ironed the fabric, and a few mishaps aside it came together quickly and easily for a first attempt - a really satisfying project with a much lower cost and shorter DIY jones than a traditional, hand-sewn kilt. All of my chalk marks had pretty much disappeared by the time I got the thing finished, so I just put it on and wore it all day at an event this weekend. It received many nice compliments!

Then I ran the finished kilt through the washer and dryer. I was surprised by how much additional shrinkage seems to have happened... a bit of puckering along the waistband and all the stitched pleat edges (I stitched very close to the edges, no more than 1/16", and with the shrinkage they've become a bit of a curly mess). I'm not sure I'd call it catastrophic, but it's definitely going to take an annoyingly long session with the spray bottle and iron to get it looking like something I'd want to wear in public again. How typical is this for the initial wash of an X-kilt, where all the fabric is still getting used to being stitched into its new configuration? I'm assuming that the main problem is that I just didn't pre-shrink the fabric enough, but I'd be interested in additional anecdata. I know anything with cotton in it is going to require some pressing after a run through the dryer, but this seems a bit extreme.