bad pleating

**OC Richard** · 29th January 11, 04:01 AM

I saw this kilt on Ebay.

It's got to be just about the worst attempt at pleating to the sett/tartan that I've seen. Note that the tripe purple stripe becomes a single purple stripe at one point, and disappears altogether at another.

**Paul Henry** · 29th January 11, 05:08 AM

I'm not sure that it is "bad pleating" it might well have been a creative solution, to breaking up the strong horizontal,whether or not it's what I ( or other kitmakers) would do is open to debate.I
The kilt maker has obviously given some thought to it as it appears to be centered on the back,so it was designed to be , not just an accident.
I would not be so judgemental on it ,it's not my favourite, but sometimes it is nice to see other pleating arrangements, after all some of the very first kilts that we know about were only pleated to.. whatever came to hand, they weren't very precise!

**Pleater** · 29th January 11, 09:12 AM

The edge of one white stripe looks a bit moth eaten, or sewn over too.

Maybe it was made to a pattern, there are such things, and the set size did not match the original.

It is certainly something to conjecture and talk about.

Though not too scathingly, I hope - some effort seems to have gone into its construction, but it appears slightly misdirected.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

**RockyR** · 29th January 11, 02:12 PM

It's a Pakistani "Pride of Scotland" tartan kilt. I've seen several of them over here in tat shops. There is a bit less care in the pleating.

**OC Richard** · 29th January 11, 05:17 PM

I guess I'm rather less forgiving than some about what appears to be a failed attempt at pleating to the sett.

If I had ordered this kilt, I wouldn't be amused by the maker's creativity.

Maybe "bad" isn't the right word. In The Art Of Kiltmaking the authors have photos of several examples of kilts like this. They use the word "poor".

They state:

"Proper pleating to the sett: a kilt pleated to the sett must reproduce the tartan accurately without extra or missing stripes... the kilt (in the accompanying photograph) has an astounding number of errors including several missing or partially missing stripes..."

The Ebay kilt I show in the OP is far worse than the examples shown in TAOK.

**Paul Henry** · 30th January 11, 02:37 AM

If it supposed to be pleated to the Sett, yes it has failed.
The maker might have been trying to be as economical with the fabric,cheating the pleats and I imagine that they would be rather shallow
I once had to repair, actually remake a similar make of kilt which was sort of pleated to the sort of Sett, no serious attempt had been made to be consistent about the repeated elements of the sett, there was no "design" in the pleats at all. At least with this ebay one someone has used design ideas.