Calculation of pleats in Kilt

**cuddles** · 27th May 13, 07:51 AM

Hi Everyone, I am new and training to be a kilt maker. Can anyone help me to understand how to work out how many pleats to put into the kilt. Everywhere I look all is in inches and training is in centimetres should I convert my life to inches and yards would it make my life easier, so having to convert all the time and what is the allowance for a paunch. Is there an easy way to understand how to do it, I bought a kiltmaking book to assist me but not making head nor tail of it. I have made a couple of kilts but it just not clicking with me yet. Any help in laymans terms would be greatly appreciated

**cessna152towser** · 27th May 13, 09:06 AM

from the Scottish Borders.

I have to wonder though what type of tailor training you are undertaking.
While modern clothing measurements in Scotland are indeed rendered in metric I have never heard of a kilt maker working in anything other than inches.

**Friday** · 27th May 13, 09:20 AM

What Cessna152tower says in probably true. There is an excellent explanation of "Determining pleat size" starting on page 65 of "The Art of Kiltmaking." The explanation is in inches. However, IMHO you should be able to determine pleat size by folding the cloth until you have a pleat depth and style you like. Once the pleats depth is determined measuring all other pleats in CM should work.

Are you pleating to the strip or to the sett?

**unixken** · 27th May 13, 11:43 AM

Another aid might be to get dual-scaled measuring tapes and rulers, with metric measurements on one side/along one edge, and corresponding inches on the other side/along the other edge.

**Friday** · 27th May 13, 05:06 PM

There is no reason that centimeters cannot be used just as easily as inches. The distance between point A and B is the same no matter how it is measured. Measured in inches, barleycorns or centimeters the distance will be the same.

Page 66 of the Art of Kiltmaking givesan easy calculator method for determining pleat size as:

“determine the number of pleats inthe kilt.
determine the back pleat measurement.
Divide the back waist measurement bythe number of pleats giving the inches per pleat'

If the back pleat measurement is in centimeters there is no reason why the pleats can not be measured in centimeters.

**Aspiringloser** · 27th May 13, 08:20 PM

Metric should be easier than fractions of an inch I would imagine.

**Pleater** · 4th June 13, 12:13 PM

My engineer husband always wants measurements in mm - but when trying to fix the sink he cuts off quarter of an inch - there's the brain and there is the hand, as they say.

When I am sorting out pleats it is not unusual for me to use a micrometre - but you don't really need to.

I find it is usually easiest to mock up the aprons - just pin them, put in the under apron pleats, and then count the remaining sets to see how wide the pleat reveals should be - then you can fold the fabric, get the stripe or part of the set you need to show correctly positioned, press lightly and then tack down the folds.

You can then check that everything is going to work out right, that the measurement is right and everything looks correct before doing any serious sewing.

There is absolutely no difference using metric or imperial measurements - if you read the theory of constructing a kilt for a particular size and understand how the maths is done, and why, then you can do the same thing in any units of measurement.

A lot of kilt design comes down to making just over half the circumference pleats, and don't skimp on the under apron pleats so sitting down is not going to get anyone arrested.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

**BCAC** · 28th May 13, 12:33 AM

Originally Posted by heilankilts

Hi Everyone, I am new and training to be a kilt maker. Can anyone help me to understand how to work out how many pleats to put into the kilt. Everywhere I look all is in inches and training is in centimetres should I convert my life to inches and yards would it make my life easier, so having to convert all the time and what is the allowance for a paunch. Is there an easy way to understand how to do it, I bought a kiltmaking book to assist me but not making head nor tail of it. I have made a couple of kilts but it just not clicking with me yet. Any help in laymans terms would be greatly appreciated

I'm not a kiltmaker and have no aspirations to become one but EVERYONE on here says that the "bible" in everything that concerns kiltmaking is the book "The Art of Kiltmaking" co-written by our own Barb Tewksbury, available here. This book actually TEACHES you how to make a kilt. You should buy it from the web site that I linked because this is the official web site. You can find it elsewhere but for a much higher price. Buying it from the official web site ensures that the co-authors get their rightfull share of the price, too.

**cuddles** · 3rd June 13, 03:13 AM

Hi Everyone thanks for your feed back, I am pleating one kilt to the stripe, I have started my next kilt to the stipe and found that easy as counting the stripes that I can get into the material, as a rough guage. I have 31 pleats in that one. For the other kilt its for the sett, I studied the calculations again and have managed to do it, thanks for your help. Only thing I would say about the cm and metres issue that is I don't know why all is in cm, I can only think that one company I went to buy cloth from sells in metres and everything is in metric, some companies sell by the metre in Britain as all is metric so need to check before I order, I asked one company is it it metres or yards they sell it and they said metres. Hence I had to make sure I asked for the material in metres. 1 yard = 0.9144 metres. I already have the art of kiltmaking book and was only asking for some help I don't need to be shouted at in capital letters I would not think. And thanks for the tip on the ruler with both measurements might go get one of those.

**Dixiecat** · 3rd June 13, 09:22 PM

Originally Posted by cuddles

Hi Everyone thanks for your feed back, I am pleating one kilt to the stripe, I have started my next kilt to the stipe and found that easy as counting the stripes that I can get into the material, as a rough guage. I have 31 pleats in that one. For the other kilt its for the sett, I studied the calculations again and have managed to do it, thanks for your help. Only thing I would say about the cm and metres issue that is I don't know why all is in cm, I can only think that one company I went to buy cloth from sells in metres and everything is in metric, some companies sell by the metre in Britain as all is metric so need to check before I order, I asked one company is it it metres or yards they sell it and they said metres. Hence I had to make sure I asked for the material in metres. 1 yard = 0.9144 metres. I already have the art of kiltmaking book and was only asking for some help I don't need to be shouted at in capital letters I would not think. And thanks for the tip on the ruler with both measurements might go get one of those.

No worries. People who are still imperial don't understand how metric raised people have to worry about converting all the time. As a Canadian who converted to metric in the late 70's, I use both systems all the time, however, my 17yr old daughter is straight metric and I have to show her what inches and yards actually are when I refer to them. Sewing materials in Canada are sold in metric, but sewing patterns and sewing terms are still talked in imperial measurements.

As someone who has to convert sewing measurements into metric or vise versa, I feel your 'pain'. Making a chart of common measurements and their conversion is very handy to have next to your sewing area.

If you can't find a dual measure in Scotland, try mail ordering from Canada. We have plenty of dual tools.