very narrow color blocks

[daibhidh]

Hello -
First time kilt maker here. I'm following TAoK with four yards of double-width MM PV Holyrood. I really love the cloth, but the tiny threads mean that the distances between stripes is very small. The sett size is not that small (6.5 inches), but all the stripes are concentrated in just over half of the sett. I had been dead-set on pleating this kilt to the stripe, but can't seem to find a stripe where I won't have lines or color borders disappearing up into the waist as it tapers.

I did notice that I could pleat to a double stripe (white and green/yellow), but it would have two different undercheck colors exposed (with one color border that wouldn't disappear). Will it look very odd to have the two different undercheck colors in the pleat reveal? Pinning it up, it looks ok to me, but I would bet I'm missing something here.

Thanks for any input!

[daibhidh]

The pleating I’m considering on the top apron side, very roughly pinned, there is a narrow band of gray at the right of each pleat.

[Barb T]

Hi hi,

That wouldn't be a traditional way of pleating, but, if you're pleating it for yourself, you wouldn't be pleating it to please either a customer or convention, so there's no real reason why you can't do it. Having said that, can you tell me why you're dead set on having it pleating to the stripe?

The other thing I'd say is that you've chosen a particularly challenging pleating for a first time kiltmaker. You'll need to be very precise and careful to make sure that not only the white stripe is absolutely centered in the pleat but that the blue on the edge of the pleat is exactly the same width on every pleat, while at the same time matching all of the stripes horizontally.

Have you tried pinning it up to the solid blue block? That would be to the stripe, but it would be a MUCH easier pleating. I think it would also look really nice with that tartan. Or to the white stripe in brown?

[daibhidh]

Thanks so much for this guidance, I kind of suspected you might say this so I'm glad I checked.

As far as why I wanted to pleat to the stripe, I was hoping to have a kilt pleated to the stripe as all my other kilts are pleated to the sett and I really like the look.

Regarding the solid blue block, I was worried about what you call the "lawn chair" effect - seems like I'd have a pretty bad case of it here (and I'm stocky, so worried about this not being very flattering).

I really wanted to pleat to the white stripe on brown. It seems though that my pleat size doesn't really allow for that unless I'm willing to have the little blue stripes on either side of that white stripe start poking out about 1/2 way down the fell. The space between the little blue stripes is 5/8", and my pleats are 9/16" at the waist, but 3/4" at the hips.

I guess I could put more of the hip split in the apron to get down to 5/8", but that would be 1/8"*33 pleats = more than four inches. , In any case, as I'm working with PV, I was worried about doing too much shaping in the apron (maybe I'm overthinking that.)

If the only good way to make this work is to pleat to the sett, I'm ok with that, but I'm wondering if I'm going to encounter the same problem with the pleat size when it comes to dividing the sett up into good pleat reveals. Would love to know if there's a good trick for that. If that won't work, I guess the solid blue block is my only choice?

Thanks again, I love the book!

[Barb T]

Ah, right! I'd forgotten about the little blue stripes, and I didn't notice them in the pic you posted. Sorry about that!

Did you try pinning up pleating to the blue block? I think it would be worth a try just to pin 5 or 6 pleats. Any tartan pleated to a solid color block will have a horizontal, but it isn't necessarily objectionable (i.e., doesn't always give the cringeworthy lawnchair...). Here's one example of a tartan that looks fine, no lawn chair, even though it has a very strong horizontal:


Do you want to pin up your tartan and take a quick pic and post it?

Gaaah! Sorry for the duplicate uploads of the same pic earlier. Our internet is glacially slow here, and nothing happened for FOREVER, so I tried uploading again. It was obviously busy in the background for the hour it took to get uploads in......

[daibhidh]

Wow, that’s magnificent!

Here’s a pinned pleating to the blue block:

Not sure how bad lawn chair can get, but feels pretty bad.

I was able to find a way to pleat to the sett, number of pleats goes down quite a bit. It’s still pretty hard to find elements to center and edge, but it works.

[Barb T]

The critical thing is that YOU have to like it. So, if it feels too "lawnchair-y" to you, then you don't want to pleat it that way!

And yes - you will get fewer pleats when you pleat to the sett, because pleating to the stripe gives 1 pleat per sett, whereas, when you pleat to the sett, you have to go over a full sett plus an inch or so (depends on the pleat size), so I figure roughly 3-4 fewer pleats when I pleat to the sett.

Anyway, good for you to figure out the pleating. I think you'll be happy with pleating to the sett!

[Flyboy]

Please excuse my novice kilt making ignorance but what is “lawnchairy” refer to ?

[Barb T]

The back of a kilt with the "dreaded lawn chair effect" looks like one of those folding lawn chairs that has the striped plastic webbing, comme ça:


You can avoid the lawn chair effect if you do a test folding of the tartan ahead of time and stand back to see what it looks like - ugh, lawn chair....




so that you can avoid making the kilt and then discovering the lawn chair...

[Flyboy]

Ah yes I get the reference now, thanks for the visuals it makes it so much clearer now.