Re-doing pleats on a box pleat?

[Barb T]

I think you won't be happy with it if you don't take out the basting, press everything flat, and then baste it back together again before you press. And there's nothing wrong with pressing the pleats before the kilt is finished, but it's really hard to do a good job until you've done the steeking and stabilizer. On the latter, it's really easy to stretch the kilt at the waist and press in the stretch if you haven't put in the stabilizer first. It's really tough to get it back to the right size when you put the stabilizer in after pressing. And, if you haven't basted the shaping in the apron and underapron edges next to the pleats, be careful to keep your iron off the apron and underapron - press only the pleats in the back of the kilt.

My experience is that there is no need to take the time to baste every pleat edge. If you've done a good job with each pleat in basting horizontally, as you've done, it's unnecessary. And if you baste each pleat edge and then press, you will press basting stitch marks into the edge of pleats, which you then have to deal with after taking the basting out.

Just baste horizontally after you stitch the pleats. Once you're ready to press the pleats (at least have the steeking and stabilizer done), you can lay the kilt out for pressing with the pleats parallel to the length of the ironing board, make sure everything looks really good, and then squirt a little steam over a couple of pleats to start to set the pleats. Check to make sure all is still OK, and do a real press. Do only a couple pleats at a time, then move the kilt for the next couple. Check, straighten, squirt some steam, check again, and press those two pleats.