Kilts of the 79th New York

[way2fractious]

The 79th Wore box pleated Cameron of Erracht Kilts. The tartan was to the set, and not the line that is the standard for modern military kilts.

Military box pleat to the sett - not to the stripe! Yikes! Another challenge...

w2f

[Dreadbelly]

Military box pleat to the sett - not to the stripe! Yikes! Another challenge...

w2f

Easy. Just have a pleat a whole sett wide, with half a sett tucked under each side. Viola.

[79thReproductions]

You are correct! Due to the person asking me not to pass around pictures of the Doublets, glengarries, and kilt, I cannot show anyone here how beautiful they are! But yes, the kilts a whole set wide, with half a sett tucked under each side.

[way2fractious]

the kilts a whole set wide, with half a sett tucked under each side.

Color me "dense"... Let me know if either of these mock-ups fits your written description. The first has pleats a whole sett wide; the second has a whole sett re-created with smaller pleats.

This one is what most of us know as a box pleat. (This mock up was done quickly, and off-center intentionally so the layers could be seen.)



This one is known as a military box pleat, which is usually pleated to a prominent stripe, but in this case pleated to the sett. (Can you tell I've got a terminal case of pleat-itis?)




Please forgive me for being so obtuse...

w2f

[79thReproductions]

I dont think I described it too well. Its hard to get what they did across because its so unique. ugh, I have to go play with tartan now to figure this out.

-Rach

[M. A. C. Newsome]

The kilts in question were made from 6 yards of cloth, and box pleated. So they were not "true" box pleats like you will find in a 4 yard kilt. Nor were they as narrow as a modern military box pleated kilt.

The one illustrated in Bob Martin's All About Your Kilt has only 12 pleats across the back. It doesn't say what the waist size of the kilt pictured it, but it looks to be fairly average. So one can assume the pleats are perhaps between 1" and 1.5" wide.

You can tell from the photo that the kilt maker was obviously attempting to pleat to sett but didn't quite get it right. These kilts were made by New York tailors, and not Scottish kiltmakers. They were machine sewn throughout. (So Rocky, you are not the first American kiltmaker to machine sew your kilts!).

Matt

[Cawdorian]

This is very interesting thread, this is the first set of illustrations I have seen of the kilted units and uniforms worn during the Civil War.

Rachel a question for you, where was the battle of Green River, Ky fought? My family has deep roots in this part of Kentucky.