When do you know you've been beaten?

**Kilted Taper** · 2nd January 07, 03:20 PM

More of a rhetorical question...But I started my US Bicentennial kilt this weekend (finally). The plan was to do it to the sett. 5 pleats in and it just isn't happening. It's a tough one. Guess now I'll have to undo the pleats and figure out which stripe to pleat too....oh the joy!

**Tattoo Bradley** · 2nd January 07, 04:22 PM

I refuse to put a stitch in anything. It's just not in the cards.

**MacTavishOfJapan** · 2nd January 07, 04:27 PM

That's five pleats further than I would have gotten! Always remember the spider Robert The Bruce saw, keep trying! Good luck!!

**McMurdo** · 2nd January 07, 08:48 PM

Good luck with it.

**Warlock** · 2nd January 07, 08:51 PM

Keep trying, Never, never, never Give Up! You have so much talent and helpful people on this ite to help you. Stick with it!

**Eujeankilt** · 2nd January 07, 09:21 PM

Agreed. Put it aside. Pull it apart and do one or two pleats, then put it away again. No hurry. You can't rush quality. I haven't attempted tartan yet, but I hope to sometime this year. We're all rooting for you.

Dale

**Alan H** · 3rd January 07, 01:46 AM

I relate. Try this...go get some inexpensive tartan, like the grey stuff that Fraser and Kirkbright has in their remnants. Make a kilt out of that stuff, pleated to sett. Then you'll have the process in your head and can try again.

That's what I did.

**Navyguy** · 3rd January 07, 02:05 AM

Good advise from all, remember, If at first you don't succeed...then sky diving is not for you... I mean, try try again.

**JimB** · 3rd January 07, 08:15 AM

Pleating to the Sett is a real head scratcher...at least for me. But take your time and you WILL get it.
Think of it this way...decide on your pleat width based on the size of the major stripes or patterns in your tartan. Try to stay to within about an inch more or less. take whatever marker you choose to start with (like a stripe or a color band) in your tartan and place that exactly over the same maker down the line making a pleat by so doing. In the tartan below think of the big red stripe as a marker. (This stripe is about one inch across so I chose that as my pleat width). Think of the green band and two white stripes immediately to the right of it as the next marker.

There will come a point when in the pattern above I just had blank area in the pattern and had to measure.

If this process gives you a good pleat depth, then fine, if not adjust where you lay your marker to the very next further one, then pick up the next marker in the pleat width you are working with and do the same. This will double your pleat depth. I started out thinking that I needed a very deep pleat depth, but found out that 2 or 3 inches will work. I prefer 3. This may not make any sense unless you have the fabric in your hand, but try it. Soon you will see that the tartan pattern is starting to emerge. It's how I did it and it worked.

**way2fractious** · 3rd January 07, 11:37 AM

I reviewed your original US Bicentennial tartan thread:

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=22502

If you have wrapped your head around the back center stripe question and got the pleat counts the way you want them, then what's the problem? The rest is just sewing...

Please, don't give up and give in. Once you have this tartan pleated and sewn to the sett, there will be very few tartans you can't tackle later.

(This from a guy who picked a wing chair as his first upholstery project. But, I did have the presence of mind to pick a solid color fabric instead of a plaid.

)

w2f