Enlarged Sett

**creagdhubh** · 15th April 14, 01:04 PM

Greetings,

So, I am thinking of having my newest kilt made from tartan with an enlarged sett. The kilt will be in the Chattan tartan (heavyweight), done in the Wilson's of Bannockburn colour scheme from D.C. Dalgliesh. I realise that the Chattan tartan already has a fairly large sett, yet I am curious how far I can "push the envelope," so to speak, without creating problematic areas in regards to the pleating and overall aesthetic of the kilt. My good friend and fellow Macpherson cousin, Bruce Macpherson of London, has a very old kilt done in the Chattan tartan with a slightly larger sett than what is more commonly woven today, and I have always loved the way it looks. I have also always been rather fond of the larger setts featured throughout the detailed watercolour plates in Kenneth MacLeay's, The Highlanders of Scotland.

I know that some of you have unique experience in this matter, since I recall seeing various photos on the forum of kilts made with an enlarged sett (David Pope's beautiful, MacMillan kilt in Wilson's colours immediately comes to mind), not to mention the expertise of our resident tartan scholars and kiltmakers!

Here are my questions/concerns:

1) The Chattan tartan already has a fairly large sett, yet how far can I go with enlarging it further without causing any pleating issues?

2) Thinking of the Chattan tartan and a full 8-yards of it in the kilt, what style of pleating would be ideal with an enlarged sett?

3) I definitely want the tartan to come from D.C. Dalgliesh, therefore will I need to request a special weave/run due to the desired colour scheme and the enlarged sett?

Bruce Macpherson of London

Chattan sett in the modern (standard) colour scheme from D.C. Dalgliesh

Kindest regards,

**Tobus** · 15th April 14, 01:39 PM

I'm obviously not a kiltmaker and won't pretend to have any solid answers for you, but based on the sett size I'm seeing in the photo of Mr. MacPherson there, I wouldn't think it would be an issue. From top to bottom of his kilt, I see about 3-1/2 sett repeats. That's about the same as my Colquhoun Reproduction tartan (also by DC Dalgliesh). So I'd say his sett size is about the same as mine, which was absolutely no problem for Barb T. when she built the kilt.

Just to be clear, are you wanting the sett size about the same as his, or even larger? Are you wanting it pleated to the stripe, sett, or what?

**creagdhubh** · 15th April 14, 01:51 PM

Originally Posted by Tobus

I'm obviously not a kiltmaker and won't pretend to have any solid answers for you, but based on the sett size I'm seeing in the photo of Mr. MacPherson there, I wouldn't think it would be an issue. From top to bottom of his kilt, I see about 3-1/2 sett repeats. That's about the same as my Colquhoun Reproduction tartan (also by DC Dalgliesh). So I'd say his sett size is about the same as mine, which was absolutely no problem for Barb T. when she built the kilt.

Just to be clear, are you wanting the sett size about the same as his, or even larger? Are you wanting it pleated to the stripe, sett, or what?

Thanks, Tobus. Whereas I am fond of Bruce's kilt, I am wanting the sett to be considerably larger than what is shown in the photograph. As I stated previously, the sett of his tartan is slightly larger than what comes standard for the Chattan tartan from most mills. It's almost barely noticeable, but he has assured me, that it is indeed larger. I am most keen on knife pleating to the sett, but I am not opposed to pleating to the line (the first kilts I owned were all pleated in this fashion). I'm guessing this will largely depend on how large of a scale I can really go with enlarging the sett.

**creagdhubh** · 15th April 14, 01:58 PM

Here's a photo of my cousin, Duncan Macpherson, showing an enlarged sett in the Macpherson hunting tartan. Even though this is an entirely different tartan, I think this gives a general idea/example of how large I really want to go with the Chattan sett.

**Tobus** · 15th April 14, 02:05 PM

Ah, OK, that gives me a better idea of the desired sett size.

My MOD kilt (QOH - MacKenzie sett) has a ridiculously huge sett size. There are only 2 sett repeats from top to bottom, which puts it at around a 12" sett. Of course, it's pleated to the white stripe as most military kilts are (military box pleat style). But in looking at the way it's pleated, they are hitting every white stripe, which appears twice in the sett, evenly spaced. So it's still pleated to around a 6" repeat on each pleat. I would think you'd have to do the same with your proposed large sett, or you'd end up with way too much pleat overlap. Problem is, you don't have a regularly repeating stripe in your sett that would allow you to cut the sett in half like that. I'd be very curious to hear what the kiltmakers propose on something like this, as I'm sure it's been done plenty of times with large-sett tartans.

I don't suppose you have a photo of the back of Duncan MacPherson's kilt, do you, just to see what he did with the pleats on it?

**Downunder Kilt** · 15th April 14, 02:30 PM

When I had my Chattan (ancient) made by John @ Keltoi he provided me with a couple of options for pleating to the stripe.
chattan to the stripe pleating.jpg
I ended up going with pleating to the sett. There is also the possibility of pleating to the block, which I think Kyle put a photo up of once where a pipe band was pleated as such. Cheers

**Nathan** · 15th April 14, 03:27 PM

I can't help you out, but am watching the thread with great interest and am looking forward to the results.

**Bareknees1** · 15th April 14, 04:30 PM

At the risk of being shot down for newbieness, I'll pitch in. I've been through Barb T's book endlessly and , as we all know, the #of pleats is defined by how much yardage and sett size.In TAoK, page 38, Barb discusses the Weatherd Stewart Old Sett tartan, with whate is termed as a "huge" sett, at nearly 15 inches. For someone with a 36" waist, 18" to pleat in the back, there would be only 14 pleats(if pleated in military style). BarbT makes a comment that "with a gigantic sett(not defined what makes gigantic), even 8 yards of material may not be sufficient for the kilt to look attractive.

**Tobus** · 15th April 14, 04:53 PM

Good input, Bareknees1. That makes sense, if each pleat repeats the same part of the sett. You either have to go with wider pleats to minimize bulk (meaning less pleats) or use a lot more material.

This sett doesn't lend itself to a half-sett repeat, but I wonder what it would look like if it were pleated so that every other pleat had a stripe, with the intermediate pleats just showing the empty space between the dense stripes? Might look weird, but it's worth a look-see.

**davidlpope** · 15th April 14, 06:15 PM

My large sett Hunting MacMillan kilt has a sett size of about 14". The kilt is pleated to the yellow stripe on the black, which occurs twice per sett, making the pleats appear about every 7".

I had to really play around with the threadcount, though, in order to get it to work out this way. With the Chattan tartan you could either pleat to stripe-red-stripe-red-stripe,etc. or minimize the red in the tartan while maximizing the stripes portion and then pleat to the leading stripe of the striped portion and the trailing stripe of the first portion. That may be hard to imagine, so I'll try come up with a visual.