Belted plaid questions...

[Kitfoxdave]

I have been searching the forums and online providers of belted plaids in search of answers... without sucess....
If a Belted plaid is fringed, should it be done on both ends?

For a 46 inch waist, I have seen suggested yardage from 5 to 8.25 yards for overall length... many seem to suggest 6 yards... Recommendations?

The sett is 4 - 9/16 inches.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Allan Thomson]

I have been searching the forums and online providers of belted plaids in search of answers... without sucess....
If a Belted plaid is fringed, should it be done on both ends?

For a 46 inch waist, I have seen suggested yardage from 5 to 8.25 yards for overall length... many seem to suggest 6 yards... Recommendations?

The sett is 4 - 9/16 inches.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Personally I'd say a plaid shouldn't be fringed especially if it is to be worn belted. But I know some might disagree.

[figheadair]

All suruving examples, and there are very few and most of those are not complete, have turned ends rather than being fringed.

You may fnd this paper of interest - Joined Plaids - Settings & Construction

[DCampbell16B]

I see Peter MacDonald has commented.

He has much more research on original plaids to help you, if authenticity is important to you.
https://www.scottishtartans.co.uk/research.htm

I concur, no fringe on either end. Mine is 6 yds, and when I wore it I was probably a 32" waist. So anything over 6 yd will probably be fine. Generally setts were larger, so if you wanted you could do 2 or 3 setts to the pleat. That would save some bunching up under the belt.

[Kitfoxdave]

I appreciate your insights on the belted plaid. I have been laying it out on the bed to see what type of pleating looks best with the small size sett. Pleating to the stripe is far too busy! Pleating to the black block looks good. Pleats are about 5.5 inch deep with 9 pleats across the back.

Box pleating with 2 sets (1 full plus 2 halves) is another option only about four box pleats that way.

Still playing with it....trying to decide pleating. I may need to do the cheater pleat route... with a couple belt loops... gimpy old man and the arthritis that goes with it...

[Kitfoxdave]

This is the tartan roughly laid out

[jhockin]

This is the tartan roughly laid out

No photo is attached. Perhaps one of the moderators can help, if you message them?

[Kitfoxdave]

Here is a back view showing the cheater pleats, lightly pressed. 2.25 inches of vertical stitching on each pleat. 12 pleats total. A 2 inch grosgrain strap across the pleated section is sewn on the inside. All stitching so far is not visible under the belt.

The missus did the sewing whilst I assisted where I could ... fetching things, replacing pins in different locations, and the light pressing... considering putting an interior buckle in on the left side similar to what Steve did on his contemporary kilts.

Enough blathering... hopefully here is the pic!20221015_172906.jpg

Sorry about the orientation... was fine on the file...

[Kitfoxdave]

Here is a picture of my wife stitching the pleats...20221015_102933.jpg

[OC Richard]

Putting on my costume making hat, my experiences involving attempting to recreate film costumes as best I can based on screen grabs and publicity shots, I'll say that if I was recreating these outfits I would without hesitation do bound edges on these plaids, bound with plain/selfcoloured wool or silk tape.

Note that the horizontal and vertical edges match exactly, and that the edge-colour is clearly different than any colour appearing in the tartan.

The difference between myself and Peter is that he's examined surviving 18th century artifacts, and I'm just looking at a pair of paintings. Our briefs are different; he is studying historical weaving methodologies, while I'm a simple costumer, trying to recreate whatever image I'm presented with.

Either way, it's clear that the edges aren't fringed.



If binding the edges didn't exist at this time, it's clear that it did exist later, as military kilts were bound by plain/selfcoloured herringbone grass-green binding for a very long time.



There's a danger of False Analogy which I need to be aware of. It's bit me on the bum more than once.