A Military box pleat kilt

[Sean_the_Kilted]

I've seen the diagrams of what makes a Military box pleat, but what makes it so special? They seem like they would be a lot heavier.

[way2fractious]

I've seen the diagrams of what makes a Military box pleat, but what makes it so special? They seem like they would be a lot heavier.

In reality they are no heavier than a traditional knife pleated kilt; the pleat depths are shallower and the pleats more intricate, but they are still pleated to the stripe and one pleat per sett. What makes them so special, IMHO, is the way the pleats swing (or, shall I say, they swing both ways ). Even though the knife-pleated kilt is an asymmetric garment, the small box on top of the pleat gives it a much more symmetrical appearance during low activity. In the regiments, a band of elastic is tacked in the inside loosely across the pleats, probably to help keep the intricate pleats from unfolding too much and not refolding correctly.

But I did see an ex-MOD Seaforth Highlander in MacKenzie tartan on an athlete at the Livermore Games a couple weeks ago. I believe his was minus the elastic, judging from his twirl during the weight tosses. The kilt is no heavier, just maybe a bit warmer in the pleats because of the layering.

Kathy Lare and others make them, What Price Glory does a reproduction mil-box, and auctions regularly turn up ex-MOD mil-boxes. If you like kilts (is that an oxymoron on this forum?), you'll love military box pleats.

w2f

[JohnH]

My thanks to way2fractious for his comments. He's quite right, it's not just the kilts. Trying to reproduce the military box pleat has been very time consuming, extremely frustrating and now, very satisfying. It is also quite likely that I will make almost all of my future kilts in this style as it provides an indescribable, but satisfying extra something to kilt wearing.

I wrote up this account as a journal during construction, which is not yet complete. So, you may notice bits that have been covered in other posts.

How I did it. (There are other ways to do this, but this is what worked for me.)

Measure & mark the cloth as normal for pleated to stripe knife pleats. Grab the outside edge of each pleat at the hip, fold the extension (the box bit) back on itself and pin it from top to bottom. (Make sure that the dominant stripe is centred in the folded bit.) Now, adjust the hip to waist portion of the pleat extension and taper it to the waist, keeping the dominant stripe centred and make sure there is no taper in the rise, then baste both edges, about 1/8” from the edge, beginning with the one furthest from you. (Right side up, top to your right. [Top to your left to baste the other edges.]) Baste all of the extensions before beginning to sew.


View from bottom. Pleats are stitched at X, edge to edge.


All pleat extensions basted. I removed the fell basting after sewing them down. The rest of it will come out after pressing & finishing.

When you have basted all of the box extensions, sew the edge closest to you of the first box extension to ONLY the first layer underneath it. (Right side up, top to the left.) (NB the visible edge of the deep pleat at the right of the apron is NOT folded over. [Must be a part of that elusive Specification!]) Then sew each pleat extension with a catch stitch* to its’ neighbour. (I suggest that you practice first with some scrap fabric as it takes time to figure out how things are going to behave and you don’t want to damage good fabric by repeatedly ripping out stitches. [Please don’t look too closely at my first pleat!]) Right edge to the next left edge. (When viewed with the top at the top,)

(* I assume that this is the stitch to use here as it is the only one that I found would do the job. I welcome any input from the experts on this point.)


Sorry, my camera seems to have a problem with macro auto-focus.

Open the seam a little to give yourself room to work. Use some backstitch, this way, that way, as necessary, to keep the horizontal stripes lined up.) from hip to top and MAKE SURE THAT YOU ONLY CATCH ONE LAYER! Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Once you have joined the last pleat to the under-apron, proceed as for a pleated to stripe kilt.* The start and finish of the project are no different to a normal knife pleat kilt. It’s just the way the pleats are formed and stitched.

*I have been re-reading some older threads and I found in one,
(http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=16994),
that way2fractious had had a go at the same thing and had noticed that there was just one stitched layer at the back. Since I did, partially, reverse-engineer a military kilt, I can confirm that this is so. What they did with mine was to taper the cuts over a longer length, but that the remaining bits are only about ½” wide at the bottom of the canvas and probably the rest of the way to the top. With 18oz. material, strength may not be an issue, but with the lighter materials it might be better to leave larger pieces. Also, the canvas in mine is not as tall as Barb recommends, so following her suggestions here on how to taper the cut and size of the canvas would add strength.


Close-up of pleat cuts in my QOH kilt. After the initial sharp cut the taper is gradual down to about ½” at the bottom of the canvas. Also, the steeking is doubled up.

An odd thing, but it makes life easier should you later find that one of the horizontal stripes is not aligned properly, (Mea culpa!) is that you only have to rip out one row of stitches to correct the problem, unlike a knife pleat job where you have to rip all the way back to the offending pleat.


Look at the left edges of pleats 5 & 6. Pic on the right is after I redid them. (The 2 safety pins, (Quilter’s pins, which are curved and much easier to use,) are keeping the buttonhole closed. The pins to the left are keeping the deep pleat aligned at the back.)

The reinforcement strip, canvas & steeking are absolutely necessary as the pleats are NOT sewn through 4 layers. (If they were, you could not cut away enough excess fabric & the top of the kilt would be too bulky. You have 2 extra layers here! But, when you have finished, there is no difference to a knife pleat kilt.)


Pleats all stitched. (The horizontals are straight. It needs cutting the excess and pressing to show that. The pin marks the centre-back.)

The illustration below shows the view of both types of pleating when viewed from the top by holding the kilt right side to the top and letting the pleats swing free. The stitches on the knife pleat version go through 4 layers, but the military box version only stitches one layer.





When I started to baste the pleats, I found that the bottom of the folded bit was curling up so, I removed the basting from the left edge and replaced it with a baste through all 3 layers along the edge. (As done by way2fractious.) This will take time, but it will be a lot easier next time.