I am just starting to cut and fold some of the bolt of tartanish cloth I got on eBay - the result of pleating to the various stripes is quite different - although I have lots of fabric I can make so many dissimilar kilts by selecting different stripes as the centre or edge of the pleat.

Just for starters I can have the dark, medium or light stripes showing, and there are three different ways to pleat them - so the look of the pleats could be entirely different in nine kilts made from the same fabric.

With a true tartan there are probably many more ways to pleat and get different effects from the placing of a stripe or folding so as to show different colour combinations.

The effect could be varied from bright to dull, light to dark, with or without great contrasts - so as long as you like the tartan enough to have it plain and unchanged as the apron you can get more or less whatever effect you like in the pleats.

Perhaps some of the rather garish tartans are the reason for some ancient kilts being pleated all the way round?