Box Pleat

[Alan H]

OK, next up on the table is a box pleat kilt made out of the X-marks tartan.

I've been looking at pictures of Matts box pleats and thinking.."How does he get so many pleats?" My box pleat California Tartan just has six pleats. Anyway, I figured out a way to make more, narrower box pleats, but then the overlap of material gets to be extreme at the waistband and I'm not sure how to get around that without cutting out material. So this afternoon I did a very odd thing.

I test-pleated the tartan into 4 sets of pleats that were as narrow as possible without overlapping any of the folds from one pleat onto another pleat. I know that I need to cover Y (half of the waist measurement) with pleats. OK, so how many of these "as small as possible" box pleats can I put into "y" ...in other words, how many pleats will this thing have?

Answer: six. The "smallest possible box pleat without overlapping another pleat and/or cutting out material" is just about 2.5 inches on the X-Marks tartan

From there I worked up how much to flare them out to, at the bottom of the fell to achieve the proper taper.

Nothing like working totally backwards!

[ccga3359]

Nothing like working totally backwards!

Or pushing the envelope.

[ChattanCat]

Why don't you want to cut the material above the fell? It is useless material and is better to remove and replace it with some interfacing to add stiffness.

[ccga3359]

Are you suggesting tapering over the entire length of the pleat?

[M. A. C. Newsome]

I have found that I like my box pleats to be between 2" and 3.5" wide at the hip. I can go more than 3.5" if the man I'm making the kilt for is a larger man. Otherwise, it just wouldn't look proportionate. But anything less than 2" and the pleat tends not to hold as well (since the pleat depth is going to be roughly 1/2 of the width of the pleat).

A "true" box pleat will have little or no overlap between the pleats. A pefect pleat, therefore, assuming you are pleating to stripe, will be 1/3 the size of the total sett repeat.

(BTW, if I know the cloth I'm using won't hold a sharp pleat that well, like the Fraser & Kirkbright cloth the X Marks tartan is made from, or a Harris Tweed, I'll make the pleats on the larger size to allow for a better drape).

[Bugbear]

I wonder if sewing in the pleats like on a canvas kilt would work for a box pleated kilt. It would be a ton of extra work of course.

[Alan H]

Why don't you want to cut the material above the fell? It is useless material and is better to remove and replace it with some interfacing to add stiffness.

1. it's more work
2. I don't know about "useless", but you're right, it's certainly not visible on the outside of the kilt and doesn't contribute to how the kilt hangs. However, this kilt will be about 4 yards. The amount of cloth layered in the fell in this kilt will be about the same as would be layered in a knife-pleat, 4 yarder. It's not THAT much. Now, I if were building an 8 yard knife pleat, then you bet I'd cut it out!

I have found that I like my box pleats to be between 2" and 3.5" wide at the hip. I can go more than 3.5" if the man I'm making the kilt for is a larger man. Otherwise, it just wouldn't look proportionate. But anything less than 2" and the pleat tends not to hold as well (since the pleat depth is going to be roughly 1/2 of the width of the pleat).

A "true" box pleat will have little or no overlap between the pleats. A pefect pleat, therefore, assuming you are pleating to stripe, will be 1/3 the size of the total sett repeat.

In fact this will be about 2.5 inches wide at the waist and 3.33 inches wide at the hip. It will have no overlap at all at the hip, and maximum overlap at the waist. The thing about box pleats is that you have to build in a LOTof taper into each pleat, since there aren't very many pleats. This is going to work out, but just *barely*!

[way2fractious]

In fact this will be about 2.5 inches wide at the waist and 3.33 inches wide at the hip. It will have no overlap at all at the hip, and maximum overlap at the waist. The thing about box pleats is that you have to build in a LOTof taper into each pleat, since there aren't very many pleats. This is going to work out, but just *barely*!

You got it, Alan. See? Once you get the kiltmaking basics, extending that knowledge into the other pleating styles is a natural thing. Is this one to be handsewn?

w2f

[Alan H]

You got it, Alan. See? Once you get the kiltmaking basics, extending that knowledge into the other pleating styles is a natural thing. Is this one to be handsewn?

w2f

I'm debating on this. I have, for all practical purposes, a deadline on this one, so much of it will have to be machine-sewn. This weekend I marked and cut off the damaged selvedge and locked down the raw edge by triple-zig-zagging it. So it's already "contaminated" with machine-sewing. And of course I will machine-sew the inside of the waistband.

However, I blind-stitched the hem by hand (it's only 12 feet). Since there are only 6 pleats, hand-sewing the pleats would go fast. On the other hand, I've figured out a way to machine-sew box pleats from the inside (not top-stitching) so that no stitching shows at all, so what's the point of hand-sewing? So I dunno.

[Azevedo]

I'm almost finishing my box-pleated leatherneck. The sett is 5.5" wide so I could make it 2" for the facing and 3.5 hidden. I did not make the pleats 1/2 of my hip but 7/12. This gave me 12 pleats (or 11 "faces").