Help with pleating to the sett

[Kilted Taper]

I *think* I may have figured it out. Broke down last night and just decided to fold and pin the pleats to get a good visual of what was going on. Turns out, my pleat marks were WAY off. When I did it to what looked right to me I ended where I believe I should be. I've attached a picture to hopefully help illustrate. But I've got 12 pleats either side of the center pleat so that was good, but do they begin and end as they should?

[chasem]

I'm not certain on this, as I've not made a kilt pleated to the sett, but I'm thinking the problem was probably in the pleat you have marked as your center-back stripe. It's not at a pivot point in the tartan. Which means (at least in my mind, and I think I'm thinking through it right) that moving 12 pleats either way is going to end up with a different pleat for the 12th pleat on either side.

In other words, it won't be symmetrical, because the center-back pleat isn't a point of the tartan that is symmetrical.



I'm not feeling like I'm speaking clearly.

In your image you have a set of three white lines in the red marked as the center back. The problem is that to the right, you have another set of three white lines, and on the left, you have the line where the red block meets the thick black line.

So, since you have asymmetry from that point, it won't be symmetrical at the apron edges.


From eyeing your image, it looks like you have 24 pleats, but 25 black marks there. It looks like the outside white lines (in the blue blocks) are the beginning of either apron, am I seeing it right?

[Kilted Taper]

Was that in English??? Kidding...I actually thought I had figured it out, but now you have me guessing. The stripe chosen for the center back was the red one between the 2 sets of three white you mentioned. HOWEVER, when I tried to keep that stripe in the center of the middle pleat, it just wasn't happening. The red stripe ends up as the edge of pleat 13 and overlaps the red on 14. Does that make sense?

There are 25 folds in the fabric which is why I am saying there are 25 pleats. They are of varying sizes since I wasn't going for erfection, just a rough estimate of what I would get as an end product.

[way2fractious]

As pinned:

Original sett:



Hey, KT, sorry to join your thread late. See what fun you've had as you "study the tartan" (as Barb's book puts it). Pleater has it right when she states that the center pleat theoretically should be between the two sets of three vertical white stripes to maintain symmetry. The problem with that is it is not wide enough for a traditional pleat.

If you still wish to pleat to the sett, here are my three suggestions, in order of my preference:

1) Slightly amend the book's directions and reset your thinking by having TWO center back pleats (just like you have it pinned) and an even number of total pleats to create the symmetry you are looking for. With an additional pleat, make all pleats 1/32" smaller, or just make the blue field pleats smaller by 1/16". (As far as the math goes, you can do it )

2) Offset the sett and use the two vertical white stripes in the blue field as the center back pleat. I know, I know... the book says choose a prominent stripe for such duty, but this is where the "Artistry" of kiltmaking comes into play.

3) More along the lines of a casual kilt, really widen your pleat size in order to capture the entire six white verticals in the red field as the center back pleat. This will, of course, produce fewer total pleats across the back.

It's your choice, it's your kilt. (How come you get to have all the fun?)

w2f