Designing a tartan and how to pleat it

[Semiomniscient]

I have just been made chairman of our Caledonian Society's committee to design and have woven and ultimately purchase uniform kilts for our pipe band which has been a "mixed kilt" band since its inception.
I have a number of good tartan designs (at least in my opinion), but when our group meets, we need to be able to consider what they will look like when pleated to stripe. (We will NOT pleat to sett.)
Most of the sett sizes are upwards of 8", some are closer to 9". I've seen various formulas in searches here about how to measure, but I'm still a little confused as to how they work. This can be worked out with the weaver and kilt maker, but before choosing a design, we want an idea of how it will look when pleated to stripe. As I wear a 4 yard box pleat, my idea of pleats are a bit larger than an 8 yard knife pleated kilt.

[Paul Henry]

I'll be honest and say I'm not sure what you are actually asking, if you are looking to pleat to the stripe then the calculation you really need is how many stripes that will make up the back of the kilt, and add the equivalent of two front aprons width to make up the final ammount of length. So, for example on a 36" hips measurement, you are looking at about 18" for the back, so you need at least 18 stripes if pleats are about 1" at that point,that is fine for an 8yd kilt( although I would actually add a few more to bring the with down to about 3/4"), but the pleat width could be between 2"-3" on a 4 yd kilt, so perhaps somewhere between 9 and 6 stripes on that style.
I wouldn't get to worried about the actual sett size if it's anywhere 6"-9" that's relatively common and most kiltmakers would be happy to work with that.

[Semiomniscient]

Thank you Paul, that was helpful. I've always just trusted my kilt maker to handle it. Now, I'm being asked questions to which I've NO clue how to answer. Would it be helpful if I put up some "test tartans" with measurement grid and pleating arrangements to see if it would be doable?

[Paul Henry]

Yes of course, pictures are always a good thing.
A question as well... do you know the weaver that the tartans will come from , because not all weavers have the same sett size for any particular tartan and this might be relevant.How many are you thinking of, because if it was enough yardage it might be possible to get a special run done at very little extra cost.

[Semiomniscient]

Yes of course, pictures are always a good thing.
A question as well... do you know the weaver that the tartans will come from , because not all weavers have the same sett size for any particular tartan and this might be relevant.How many are you thinking of, because if it was enough yardage it might be possible to get a special run done at very little extra cost.

We do not know what weaver we will use yet. We may decide to buy an entire bolt. (I don't know how many yards comes on a bolt yet.) But to start, we need approximately 12 kilts each 8 yards. I assume we are trying to get 16 oz. weight wool rather than 13 oz. We want to be able to have fabric on hand with which to have new kilts made, or ties, or whatever we want, for the use of our pipe band and society. Buying a full bolt should give us the best opportunity to do that both for convenience and cost.

[kc8ufv]

Just thinking of the pleated to the stripe, pleat widths, and amount of fabric neccessary - Some tartans may allow for multiple pleats per sett, if they have multiple similar stripes at different points.

[Paul Henry]

Just thinking of the pleated to the stripe, pleat widths, and amount of fabric neccessary - Some tartans may allow for multiple pleats per sett, if they have multiple similar stripes at different points.

Very true, but until we know the tartans, it's safer to go for the single stripe per sett,then at least we will have plenty to play with! I know that James is very much a traditionalist, so having a little extra cloth in the kilt would doubtless be better than skimpting!

[Semiomniscient]

Very true, but until we know the tartans, it's safer to go for the single stripe per sett,then at least we will have plenty to play with! I know that James is very much a traditionalist, so having a little extra cloth in the kilt would doubtless be better than skimpting!

:-) I might surprise you on pleating. (I'm very much excited about my Kingussie pleated kilt from Matt Newsome coming this month!) But the band members are also tend toward a traditionalist approach too. It's much better to take it traditionally when trying to please a lot of people.
But I've posted a tartan, so we can start addressing what I'm doing wrong and/or right.

[Semiomniscient]

This is an example of a tartan I've done and how I'm working out the pleats after Paulhenry's explanation. This isn't one of the tartans that's really on the table for the band, it's just one I've designed. Let me know what you think of the pleating size.

[Paul Henry]

This is an example of a tartan I've done and how I'm working out the pleats after Paulhenry's explanation. This isn't one of the tartans that's really on the table for the band, it's just one I've designed. Let me know what you think of the pleating size.

You've gone for pleating to the stripe in a sort of non stripe sort of way, I've got no problem with that , although some here don't always like it calling it "the dreaded lawnchair effect".
As long as the colour blocks are about 1" wide you will be able to have the block pleated to about 3/4", it's helpful to have a little spare so the next colour lines on the block don't show at all.Using your example I'd still only use one stripe per sett even though both green are doubled up,as the pleat depth would be just a little "too little"
So using 36" as a hips measurement.... and 18" as the back , with 3/4" pleat width you would then get 24 pleats, so if the repeat is 8"( for ease of calculation) you would need 192" then add fabric for the aprons and reverse pleats , (I normally allow at least 3 aprons worth ) so that would be about 54 ". That makes a total of 246" , that is a minimum really but it comes out at about 7 yards. So on a basic calculation of allowing 8 yds person that would be fine.