Campbell of Breadalbane

[Patty Logan]

Hi Serial Kilters,

As I was looking through the tartan registry like I always do, I found the Campbell of Breadalbane tartan. Is it possible to pleat a a kilt to both yellow strips? Would the green ground be too wide to allow that? Would you have no choice but to pleated to one strip? Curious to find out!

Thx!

[figheadair]

Hi Serial Kilters,

As I was looking through the tartan registry like I always do, I found the Campbell of Breadalbane tartan. Is it possible to pleat a a kilt to both yellow strips? Would the green ground be too wide to allow that? Would you have no choice but to pleated to one strip? Curious to find out!

Thx!

This is the original Breadalbane tartan, kne that designed for/worn by the Breadalbane Fencibles. The only way to incorporate both yellow stripes would be to use smallish setting and a wide box pleat. And by box-pleat, I mean the early 19th century style, not a modern military box-pleat. Otherwise, pleating to one of the yellow (the same one on each pleat) could work, depending on the sett size.

[Patty Logan]

…Otherwise, pleating to one of the yellow (the same one on each pleat) could work, depending on the sett size.

Would that make it look like Gordon from the back?

[figheadair]

Would that make it look like Gordon from the back?

In broad terms, yes.

[OC Richard]

In broad terms, yes.

Yes with Gordon the yellow line is flanked with green on both sides, whereas with that Breadalbane you'll have the yellow line flanked with green on one side and black on the other.

In "modern colours" where the green is quite dark it won't make much difference.

I'd try pleating it to the pairs of black lines on the blue block, just to see if that's better than the yellow.

But if that were a modern military tartan they'd almost certainly choose the yellow- they go with the light stripe if there is one.

[Patty Logan]

…whereas with Breadalbane you'll have the yellow line flanked with green on one side and black on the other.

In "modern colours" where the green is quite dark it won't make much difference.

I'd try pleating it to the pairs of black lines on the blue block, just to see if that's better than the yellow.

Black and green for the yellow lines…interesting.🤔🤔🤔
As for the the “train track” line on blue, I had a similar idea when it came to the black watch tartan but was told by several people (including Peter) that the pleats would have to be very very deep since the they don’t repeat every time just every 2nd time on blue if you know what I mean? And thoughts would be more expensive since it will require twice as much fabric.

[OC Richard]

As for the “train track” line on blue, I had a similar idea when it came to the black watch tartan but was told by several people (including Peter) that the pleats would have to be very very deep since the they don’t repeat every time just every 2nd time on blue if you know what I mean? And thoughts would be more expensive since it will require twice as much fabric.

I've seen it done, because in fact the "train track" lines appear in every blue square, alternating centred and at the sides.

What they did was offset the black lines slightly to the same side of each pleat, due to the side black lines being too close to the black stripe. The wider the pleats, the more the offset.

Because in every other blue square the black pair of lines has plenty of room on both sides, and in the alternating squares only plenty of room on one side.

Yes on the inside of the kilt it will be seen that the depth of the pleats alternate. But on the outside all the pleats look the same. My Hunting Stewart kilt is like that.

I think this is only practicable if the sett is large enough. If the sett is too small then every other pleat is too shallow.