Pleated to the line

[Hamish]

.............................................
But just as a personal opinion, I notice that when a kilt is pleated to the stripe instead of the sett, the kilt looks completely different from the front to the back, as the pattern of the tartan is hidden in the pleats. My preference is that the tartan should be the same and recognizable from all sides.

I know exactly where you are coming from with this and 99% of the time I would agree with you. However, some tartans just yell out to be pleated to the stripe. My "Bruce of Kinnaird AC" is, in my opinion a prime example:



(PS: Since my original 2004 post, I have had two other kilts pleated to the stripe : the "Bruce of Kinnaird" and the multi-toned grey tartan - "Grey Thistle Dubh". See my Photo Album.)

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Just a little bit of history to put things in perspective. Pleating to the sett is a relatively new thing in the world of kilt making. When Stuart Ruaidri Erskine wrote The Kilt & How to Wear It in 1901, he described pleating to the sett as a very new thing, and he didn't even know if it had a proper name, but he liked it!

Since then it has become the norm, but the norm for most of the nineteenth century was pleating to the stripe.

Kilts, keep in mind, were first tailored at the very end of the eighteenth century. The oldest surviving kilt is from 1792 and it is a Gordon Highlanders regimental kilt, containing less than 4 yards of cloth, box pleated, to the yellow line. All military kilts were pleated to the line (to stripe). Civilian kilts from this period were pleated to no pattern at all (see the main page at http://www.scottishtartans.org for a picture of a civilian kilt c. 1800 which is pleated to no pattern). Civilian kilts eventually adopted the military fashion of pleating to the line sometime around 1815-1820 so that by the mid-1820s the norm for a civilian kilt was about 4 yards of cloth, box pleated to the line.

Box pleating did not come out of India, I'm afraid, nor was it invented as an accedental way of pressing or pleating a knife pleated kilt. All the early tailored kilts were box pelated. The first regiment to adopt knife pleating (side pleating) was the Gordon Highlanders in 1854.

Y'all have a good weekend!
Matt

[Robin]

The pictures Hamish just posted inspired me to get at least one kilt pleated to the stripe


MacLaren muted, pleated to the stripe...the yellow stripe running vertically also is pretty stunning imho.


The sett

[djweso]

Lots of great history! Great Pics! Thanks guys.

This may just be me, but often when look at a a tartan pleated to stripe/line I almost miss the stripe that its pleated to. I see the strong, dominate stripes running horizontally and almost miss the center stripe running vertically. Just an observation.

[Scott Gilmore]

The pictures Hamish just posted inspired me to get at least one kilt pleated to the stripe ...

MacLaren muted, pleated to the stripe...the yellow stripe running vertically also is pretty stunning imho.

I agree, handsome tartan, and it looks good pleated to the stripe. Thanks for the pictures.

Interesting thead.

Regards,
Scott Gilmore

[MacSimoin]

Matt is, of course, spot on with his input in this thread. You just gotta love and respect the wealth of knowledge he and others like him dispense so freely for those of us here who aren't as well-educated (myself included) on the historical aspects of kilts and kilt-wearing.

...some tartans just yell out to be pleated to the stripe.

I'm in full agreement with this but I'll even go as far as to say Ham's statement applies to most tartans. It's just my opinion that pleating to stripe looks better and gives a kilt even more 'character'.

[CameronTaylor]

Serious agreement, once I saw how cool a stripe looked and the way the colors flash when it swings (I think it was Barb T.s Antarctica or some such ) I was hooked. That's how my X Marks will be done.


CT - yelling, screaming, striping.

[Yaish]

One of the State Universities here, University of California, Riverside (UCR) had their own tartan developed and kilts made for their pipe band.

I believe it is pleated to the stripe, because when viewed from the front you see this across the apron
http://www.pipeband.ucr.edu/tartan.html


When viewed from behind, the kilt is a much more gold tone, except for this flash of rich, royal blue jumping out with every step.

Honestly, I think it is the most attractive kilt/tartan I have ever personally seen, and I do hope to get one myself, though I have no ties to the school at all.


EDIT: To add more pictures.

http://www.lindaclifford.com/UCRPipeBand.html

http://www.pipeband.ucr.edu/

[Moosehead]

Being an ex-mil type, I much prefer pleated to the stripe. I doubt, of any tartan kilt I'll own, that I'll ever pleat to sett.

[Pleater]

Having bought a bolt of cloth I have managed to devise three different kilts so far by pleating to the black, the lavender or the purple stripe, and as the repeat is 8 inches I can make a fourth one pleated to the sett. I will still have lots of cloth left - maybe I'll store it for future making.

The pleated to stripe kilts are already well under weigh, and they do look entirely different from the back. I will not complete them until the weather cools as they are quite heavy and trying to work on them in this heat would probably exhaust me. I decided to sew the edges of the pleats so as to get the stripe at the same distance from a sharp fold, once that is done I can then sew the waist to whatever size I need - probably sewing it by hand for ease of future adjustments.

I think the kilts are quite sucessful as they already look good with the pleats pinned into place.

I can't see how the literacy of a kilt maker would affect the way a kilt is made. I might be a bit biased as my father's mother was a country woman who could run a household and the orchard, poultry yard, dairy and all the rest, clothe a man from top to toe except for making his boots - but she could mend them once he had them - and she was illiterate until my father went to school and she sat with him and learned what lessons he'd done that day once he got home. She was coached so she could write her name when she married at 21 - rather than put an X in the church register, but that was all she could do.

Just because she could not read nor write her letters didn't mean she could not count - though she had no concept of money for a long time. However she picked it up quickly enough as the shilling had a dozen pennies and there were a score of shillings to the pound, both familiar to her from the counting of eggs and the 'yarn tan tethra' of the shepherds.