Impressions of my dry cleaner...

[Brother Falldown]

My dry cleaner loves to see the kilt. For around $14.00 he cleans, irons. and displays the kilt. When I first took it to him, he asked all the inane questions. He now knows me and and the answers. He calls my kilt "The real thing", and takes very good care of it. He also puts it on his front rack (behind the counter) when it is done. He also takes good care of my tuxedo.


When people ask if I play the pipes, I just tell them that I can't even play the radio. When certain people ask me about the pipes, I just give them a blank stare and say, "What pipes?".

$14! Wow, am I fortunate. My dry cleaner charges me the same $2 she charges for my slacks and shirts. Always does an excellent job. ith:

[fluter]

Many boy's kilts are sold with a large hem (up to 4") to accommodate the frequent growth spurts. A boy can grow 4" in height and gain barely an inch on waist or chest.

Many band kilts are hemmed, for the same reason. Either the current wearer is shorter than the last, or one wants to allow for the next wearer being taller!

For the horizontal component of growth, there is the "hidden pleat," i.e. extra fabric under the left edge of the apron. It's also used when there's just a bit extra fabric that doesn't fit what we mean to do with the pleats.

In an ideal world the selvedge would be good, in just the part of the sett that we'd like for esthetic reasons; both ends of the cut fabric would just make the apron facings (with none left over); and the bits in between would fold themselves perfectly into our desired pleating with just the correct amount of deep pleat and reverse pleat (and none left over). I'd like to live in that world for a couple of weeks, just to try making that Platonic ideal of a kilt.

Oh, and codgers' kilts would not shrink in the closet!