Maple Leaf pleating options

[Grizzled Ian]

I have been reviewing earlier threads on pleating this tartan, and thank you to Barb and others for their insightful comments. The piece of Maple Leaf material I want to turn into a kilt for a friend was woven by Batley's, and I am thankful that the sett repeat is 7 1/2" (though I think I have a 'de-skewing' task ahead of me). The broader stripe in the centre of the crimson undercheck I think may be sage green (SG), and in this Batley weaving, the narrower stripe between the Yellow (Y) and the Brown [B]* is the same SG colour, so I'll refer to it as the narrow SG.

Barb points out, it is only the fact that the Y and the B stripes are not the same colour that prevents this tartan from being symmetrical. A bold man takes it one step further, and states that, while the colours make it asymmetrical, the pattern of Maple Leaf is symmetrical. This realisation set the hares running in my contemplation of how to pleat it.

While waiting for any results of this latest running of the hares, the practical side of me pinned up a few 'to the stripe' possibilities that I will photograph and email to Barb for her comment, if she would be so good.

The fallback, of course, is to pleat it to the sett, and hope that with a width of 7/16", the narrow SG stripe won't need to be split across two pleats, as Barb had to do - though I'm not confident.

The challenge is ahead of me!

*square brackets here, because a 'B' within round brackets looks like this: . That's for later!

[Barb T]

Ian! You've already started Ian-isms and it isn't even Kilt Kamp time yet! I guess there will just have to be some pre-loaded items on the board when you get here... ;-)

[Grizzled Ian]

Any knife-pleating solutions were ruled out because there was not quite enough material. Drat!

So, what to do? Clearly, a box-pleat, of course.

After mulling over various width and number of pleat options, I settled on 7 pleats, each 3 inches wide, for my 21-inch hip-split measurement. I have enough material to go over not just one sett-width, but 1 1/2 sett widths, and Bingo! I am alternating the crimson and the green under-checks, with the SG centred in the crimson, and the Y/SG/B centred in the green. I think this solution met with Barb's approval.

But wait, there's more! Not only enough material for the pleating solution, but also enough to offer a slash pocket on the right side. Lawrence (for whom I am building this one) is good to go on the pocket idea, but Mrs Lawrence absolutely knows he is going to put too much in the pocket and ruin the look of the kilt. Well, if that is how it works out, she can always sew it closed. Chuckle!