Black Watch pleated to the strip but which strip?

[Patty Logan]

Hi serial kilters, most of you would know that when you have a kilt in the black watch tartan the pleating to the strip would usually be the black strip on the section of green.(as most not all military regiments do) this got me thinking, has anybody pleated the kilt to the blue strip on the blue section that has black guards? I have never seen this personally, but from my experience looking at different tartans and kilts I believe this is possible. let me know and don't forget to include pictures if you have them.

[figheadair]

I'm not a kilt maker so you would need to check but, the trouble with teh 42nd sett is that the double black line (what you refer to as the blue line but it isn't as it's the same shade as the ground) only occurs on alternating blue squares. The black on green obviously occurs on every green.

The bottom line is that you would need pleasts twice as deep in order to pleat to the same blue square.

[Arnot]

I'm a kilt maker and I have pleated loads of kilts to that stripe. What I did was pleat alternating between the two stripes on the blue and the no stripe section between the two sets of black stripes. I was given a Black Watch Regiment kilt to replicate by a local pipe band. That's why I did it that way.

[Patty Logan]

I'm a kilt maker and I have pleated loads of kilts to that stripe. What I did was pleat alternating between the two stripes on the blue and the no stripe section between the two sets of black stripes. I was given a Black Watch Regiment kilt to replicate by a local pipe band. That's why I did it that way.

do you have pictures of it?

[Arnot]

do you have pictures of it?

Not the best photo, but maybe it will give you an idea what it looks like.

[figheadair]

I'm a kilt maker and I have pleated loads of kilts to that stripe. What I did was pleat alternating between the two stripes on the blue and the no stripe section between the two sets of black stripes. I was given a Black Watch Regiment kilt to replicate by a local pipe band. That's why I did it that way.

So, to every blue square, not alternating as raised in the OP?

[Steve Ashton]

One issue that has not been brought up is that, in the example of the kilt by Arnot above, the primary background color will be black lines on blue vs the background of black lines on green that is present in the RRS kilts.

This may or may not effect your decision.

I suggest that you take your length of kilt fabric and test pleat it up a few different ways and see which you like better.

This is a very common practice among kiltmakers.

[Arnot]

So, to every blue square, not alternating as raised in the OP?

It would appear that I read the OP wrong. Apologies.

[Pleater]

After a few years making kilts, I only every decide on the layout after trying out the various options - even if they seem unlikely ones, but make notes or take photos if you have the technology as it is all too easy to lose the one that seemed a good contender several foldings ago.

Anne the Pleater

[Steve Ashton]

OK, I noticed that no one else has brought up that the image in the original post is not of the Black Watch (42nd) Tartan and this may be what is causing the confusion.

The Tartan that is named and sold as "Back Watch" is listed with the Scottish Register of Tartan as #5128 and the Scottish Tartans Authority as #207, is this -



Notice please that in each green band there is a single black stripe -
But
The black stripes in the blue bands alternate between two black stripes centered
And four black stripes, two on each side.

So one repeat on the Tartan pattern is not from one green band with a black line to the next green with black -

But

From one blue with two black centered - all the way across to the next blue with two centered.

This creates a large Sett. (On my own personal 16oz kilt the Sett is 12.5")

If you pleat this Tartan to the blue band with two black centered - each pleat uses up 12.5" of fabric and the pleat depth of 1" reveal pleats will be 5.75" deep.

The green with black stripe is repeated twice in each Sett so this is why many kilts are pleated to this stripe.

Each 1" pleat uses 6.25" of fabric and the pleat depth is 2.625".

In the Arnot example above, the kilt is pleated to each blue band so the stripe within the blue pleats alternate.

I hope this helps answer the original question and clears up some confusion.