Can I make cotton flannel keep pleats?

[macruadhi]

I friend of mine made me a kilt from printed plaid cotton flannel, it held it's pleats long enough for the purpose it was created for, a wedding. But now, a few years later and I want to know if there is anything I can apply (other than starch) that will help it keep it's pleats?

[cavscout]

Welcome to the neighborhood

Short of stitching down the length of the pleats, which is how most casual kilts hold their pleats, you could iron on hem adhesive tape.


I don't know how well it would hold up in the wash over time but I used it in the service to surface apply more attractive fabric over my barracks curtains and worked great for that purpose.

For future reference though, there are a lot of great kilt options from our vendors for great looking, fantastic quality and affordable kilts.

[HeathBar]

from another Tennessean. Cotton flannel really doesn't have the right properties for making a kilt, the pleats will never hold without outside help. Its too light in weight. If you can tell us what you are wanting out of the kilt, we can point you in the right direction. Where in Tennessee are you?

[mrtackytn]

Welcome to X-Marks - from Music City, USA - Nashville, TN !!
Several stores in the Nashville area sell a product called "Stitch Witchery" that is
similar to the iron-on product (Heat Bond) shown above. Good Luck!!

[The Wizard of BC]

Cotton, buy the very nature of the fibers will not hold a crease. This is why cotton shirts need to be starched and ironed. Cotton by it's nature will also be prone to wrinkling. That is just the facts of the fibers that the fabric is woven from
.
Another fact of Cotton is that it continues to shrink through out it's life. Cotton garments get gradually smaller and smaller the more you wash them. This is why many Cotton garments get thin areas in them. As the fibers shrink we force them back to size by wearing them and the individual yarns get stretched thin.
This is also why it is so hard to make a well hanging kilt from Blue Jean Denim. It will shrink along every stitch line and develop puckers.

The good thing about Cotton is that the more you iron it the better it gets. A good dress shirt starched and ironed after every washing will look as good 20 years on as it did new.

The fusible idea to 'glue' the pleats together will work for a while but will leave a section of the pleat equal to the width of the fusible material stuck together. This will probably be visible from the outside of the kilt.

For those of us kiltmakers who work with Cotton and Cotton blend fabrics we usually do a line of edge stitching along the inside and outside pleat edges.

I have never attempted to make a kilt from Cotton Flannel and probably never will. But good luck with your project and be sure to post photos of the finished kilt so we can all learn.