Pleat Splay

[Ruanaidh]

Begin by closing your kilt as if it were being worn, and then fold it in half again, with the pleats on the outside. Then attach the clamp hanger to the top. The kilt should hang perfectly, and you'll never have to worry about messy pleats. M

Matt, Dosen't this cause the kilt to have a crease down the middle of the apron?

[M. A. C. Newsome]

If you leave it hanging there for long periods of time, then yes it might. But each of my kilts gets a wearing about once a week, once every two weeks at the least, and only rarely do I have this problem.

And when I do, it only takes a few seconds with the iron to get the crease out of the flat apron, versus all the time of re-pressing the pleats if it had been folded the other way 'round.

[GlassMan]

I have to admit that I use the hangers with the 2 clips, but I've solved the problem of the weight by using 2 hangers per kilt. One hanger is clipped to the rear of the kilt and the other hanger is clipped to the front and back apron.

And since I wear my kilts constantly and still don't have a collection as large as Hamish' I don't have a problem with splay.

[Hamish]

In all my years of kilt wearing, I have always hung them folded as if being worn (with all the buckles/straps done up) and, until fairly recently, I used the wooden clamp-style hangers that Matt mentions - except that mine were 14" or 16" long. These were ideal, but I can no longer find these hangers with such long 'arms' and have been obliged to use the 2-clip hangers. There is no sagging of the waistband problem with the lightweight kilts - the clips hold everything taut and straight - but with the heavier kilts I add a spring-clip clothes peg near the centre of the hanger to support the waistband at that point.

Each kilt is in a transparent plastic cover which not only protects the kilt, but also prevents the pleats from getting caught-up on the kilt hanging next to it!

[GMan]

Thanks Ham for letting us in on the way you care for your kollection, very helpful for future and present Kilts.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

If you leave it hanging there for long periods of time, then yes it might. But each of my kilts gets a wearing about once a week, once every two weeks at the least, and only rarely do I have this problem.

I've been thinking about this reply that I made last night and I spoke too soon. Out of the seven kilts I currently own, and the numerous others I have owned in the past, only one kilt gives me the problem of occasionally getting creased in the front. It's my lovat green Harris Tweed.

I have one other Harris Tweed kilt, and it's a lighter weight tweed, and it never gives me this problem. The lovat green is a very heavy weight. I don't know why that would make a difference, but this is the only kilt I remember ever having to iron out a slight crease in the front apron.

All my other kilts are standard worsted wool tartan, either 16 oz or 13 oz (though I have in the past owned everything from 10 oz to regimental weight), and none of them have ever had a crease in the front apron after hanging this way -- including one old MacGregor 8 yarder that I tend to wear only when I'm going to be marching in a parade and want the extra swish. So it will hang in my closet for months at a time and still not get creased.

I don't know why I only have this issue with my Harris Tweed kilt, and why with one and not the other, but there you go!