How much tartan for a kilt?

[Thunderbolt]

Alright, help a brother out..

I'm sitting here working through my first kilt. I picked up a copy of Barb and Elsie's book (fantastic work!). However, I'm having trouble on the figuring how much tartan part. I've got plenty of tartan material, but I don't want to waste much. (BTW, it's a wool lightweight in 11oz, knife pleated to stripe.)

I'm sure it's plain as day in the book but it's not getting through my thick skull...

Ok, so, I've got the measurements written down and figured. However, where I run into problems is figuring how many pleats to, well, pleat. Since it's to stripe, do I only need to pleat the number needed in the width to make a sett still? If that even makes sense...

Help!


T.

[TheKiltedWonder]

What is the reveal of the pleat? That, the sett size and your waste size will tell you how much you need.
For example: If I have a 42 inch hip measurement and I have 21 inches of that in the pleats, with a one inch reveal, then I will need 21 pleats. If I were to half a half-inch reveal then that'd be 42 pleats. Make sense?

[Thunderbolt]

Yeah.

The waist measurement is 41". Sett is 6 and 3/8"

I'm not sure on my reveal yet. I'd like around 1" but I'm flexable.

So, if 1/2 my waist is in the pleats, that's 20 1/2". Reveal could be 1", so is that 20.5 pleats? Can't be that easy...

T.

[TheKiltedWonder]

well, you're not gonna want to have a half pleat right? ANd the book suggests putting slightly more room in the back than in the front. 1" is the upper end of what you want, but if you'd like, for simplicity's sake to keep that the reveal you could make your split 20" in the front and 21" in the back. Then do 21 pleats w/ 1" reveals.

[Thunderbolt]

Ok, making more sense now.

I think I'll back it off and go with 20 pleats in the back. Or, should I be using the hips measurement and go with 23 pleats?

Thanks!

T.

[TheKiltedWonder]

Oh sorry; I didn't catch that you were using the waist measurment. Yeah, you're gonna wanna base that all on the hip measurement
then you find the difference between hip (a) and waist (b) measurements and divide by the number of pleats (c) and that will give you how much smaller the pleat will be at the waist. So (a-b)/c = X. That's how much smaller the reveal will be at the waist. Make sense?

[Pleater]

If you have plenty of material and it is lightweight then I'd advise using lots of material.

I've only been making kilts for a couple of years and my methods are not conventional, but I have only ever regretted not putting more material into a kilt.

For a 42 inch hip measurement I'd go for at least 22 inches of pleats - at the hip, that is. Maybe 24 inches or even more would be better, particularly if you have got a bit of a 'bay window' in front. Its the shape, not the measurement, that is important and although the fabric will bend to accommodate the shape beneath, it is going to look better if there is enough kilt to go round the body, even if it is hanging over fresh air. You want to look dressed, not parcelled.

The pleats are narrowed into the waist and sewn down in the conventional method, the aprons are shaped so as to be slightly wider at the lower edge - though when worn they actually hang straight, the curve of the body makes a straight apron look as though it is narrower at the bottom.

There is a large pleat folded under the apron and under apron so that it is possible to lift your foot to tie a lace without having the aprons pull apart. There is also one more large pleat folded the other way, again for ease of movement, but also for modesty - if you sit or crouch down you want the aprons to fall between your thighs. If there is enough material the under apron can be pushed backwards so that even sitting on the ground does not provide an unfortunate photo opportunity.

The large pleats are useful to get the sett lined up nicely on the apron, so the pattern is placed so it looks right.

[Thunderbolt]

I don't know. I'm following the directions, and I have read them through, it just isn't clicking in my head.

Now, I'm on the part where it says I need 1/2 hip measurement plus 15-17" AND 1/2 hip plus 5-6" for the underapron! You gotta be kidding!? for this kilt, that's 43" to 46" AFTER the last pleat!!

I don't think I factored that into the measurements...

T.

[Barb T]

Now, I'm on the part where it says I need 1/2 hip measurement plus 15-17" AND 1/2 hip plus 5-6" for the underapron! You gotta be kidding!? for this kilt, that's 43" to 46" AFTER the last pleat!!T.

Yes - you need that much material after the last pleat so that you can have 15-17" for the inverted pleat next to the underapron and the 5-6" for the facing on the left hand side of the underapron. In other words, you need more fabric than it actually takes for just the pleating and the two aprons.

Start by finding the middle of the fabric and lay out half the pleats each way. If you put the middle pleat at the end of the first half of the fabric, you'll have enough fabric left on the second half for the inverted pleat and facings without having to do any extra figuring.

The pleats on trad kilts that I make are typically 3/4"-7/8" at the hip, rather than an inch at the hip (and it's the hip measurement that you want to base it on). So, for a tartan with a set of 7" or so, you can get 25-27 pleats into a kilt. That's pretty typical. It's rare to see a man's kilt with only 20 pleats. If you have 8 yards of tartan, you'll have enough fabric for that many pleats.

Is it going better, or do you still have questions?

Barb

[Thunderbolt]

Well, it's not going great just now.

My first problem came figuring exactly how much material I needed. I have the measurements, I have the sett distance, I know all the information. I'm just not sure how to plug everything in to get the length of tartan needed.

I thought I did, got the material, ripped it to length and left the width WAY to long, I knew. Well, when it came to layout, I found the middle pleat, however, I must have missed the step where it said to figure the width needed first, because when I marked the pleats on one side, I ended up with 17 pleats, ON ONE SIDE! So somewhere, I'm figuring, I missed where to find the center back stripe, based on the number of pleats I intend to have, but I haven't been able to figure that out yet! See, I'm all messed up!

I'm a machinist, not a tailor. That's my first problem!

T.