Washing a kilt

I wanted to have a kilt in my family tartan for a long time so when I was engaged I said to myself. "Myself, now if a fantastic time to get a kilt!"  I did and was married in a brand spanking new kilt and I looked fantastic.

I probably should say that I live in Nova Scotia and there is a strong Scottish heritage here.

That was 18 years ago.  I've worn the kilt probably about 6 times a year but never really got around to having it cleaned.

My next door neighbour is a bagpipe instructor so I asked him how he cleans his kilts and it turns out that he has several and gets them dry-cleaned.  I also did a little research on the web in blogs www.xmarksthescot.com/ and kilt forum. 

Generally, the impression that I got was to gently hand wash the kilt or take it to a dry cleaner.  I didn't really want to go the dry cleaner route because I hate spending money and I'm planning on purchasing another kilt for running and don't want to be getting the thing dry cleaned after every run.

Then I stumbled upon the below conversation: http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f100/washing-wool-kilts-48624/

It appears that two fellows who work in kilt shops washed their kilts in a front end loading washer that was set to the hand wash setting and then laid the kilts flat to dry.  I believe one fellow even put his into the drier on a sweater drying rack he had.  I don't have a sweater drying rack so that option was out.

I do however, have a washing machine with a hand wash setting so I tossed in my prized kilt and let it go. I was not very confident, but felt washing was worth the risk.  People went to war in these things so really will a wash hurt them?

After an agonizing wait, the cycle was finished and the kilt came out looking fine.I then put it over a drying rack for a while, but thought that the weight of the kilt would take the wrinkles out if I hung it up so I did.  I also put a dehumidifier under it to dry faster.

The kilt looks fine.  I didn't even iron it afterwords.

There may be a lot of factors that influence why mine came out well.  It's a heavy wool kilt.  It's never been washed before so maybe after 10 washes it will look like crap...I don't know.   Alls I know is that it worked for me.

If you give it a go, let me know how it works out for you.

Cheers.