The next problem my mind just could not get around was the way "The Art of Kiltmaking" explains was how to figure out how wide your pleats needed to be. You need to measure the Sett size and know how many Setts of fabric you had to work with, and how big the hips of the kilt you were making was.

To me, who was already used to using a standard pleat width, it just comes as second nature to figure out pleat size based only on the Sett size of the particular Tartan I was working with.

Remember those lines you made on the table in the first step of this tutorial? Here they are again.



Can you see up near the top a horizontal line drawn? There is another near the middle and another down at the bottom. These lines are my pleat width limit lines. the horizontal line near the top tells me where the spacing is 1/2 inch apart. The horizontal line in the middle is where the spacing is exactly 1 inch apart, and the horizontal line near the bottom shows where the spacing is 1 1/4 inch apart.
This spacing is about the standard pleat width in a traditional kilt. Some kilts have pleats as narrow as 5/8 inch and some as wide as 1 1/4 inch. So the top and bottom horizontal lines are about as narrow or as wide as I want my pleats.

All you have to do to figure out pleat width is to lay your Tartan down on the lines. Then move the strip of fabric up and down till the Tartan aligns with the lines on the table.

Viola!!!

Well, not quite as simple as that, but almost. And here is where knowing a just a bit about Tartan and tapering your pleats comes in.

Here is my strip of Tartan laid out on the lines.



Can you see that I have moved the strip up and down until the Tartan pattern is aligned with the lines. Look closely at the small yellow and white lines in the Tartan. Can you see how each is in the center of the grid lines?

Now notice how wide each grid line is at this point on the grid. The spacing at this point on the grid is about 1 1/4 inch. Probably too wide for this Tartan and a traditional looking kilt.

Now look again.



All I have done is carefully moved the fabric strip up until it lines up with the Tartan pattern again but now there are more divisions for each Sett. The spacing of the pleats if marked her will be right about 7/8 inch. Just about perfect.

The only difference is that in the first picture there will be 4 pleats to create one Sett and in the second picture it will be 6 pleats to create one Sett.

See, no scratch pad with arithmetic all over it, no tape measures laying around, a no fractions or decimal conversions. Just move the fabric strip up and down till the tartan pattern aligns with the lines on the table.

Now, here is the pop quiz!