Help with pleating to the sett

[JimB]

I really don't know how anyone could tell if you were just a little off.
It looks good to me. Nobody is going to count these pleats when you're wearing it are they? I'm making kilts too and I want mine to be as perfect as they can be, but I just don't know how anyone is going to tell on this.

I like that logic... "if it looks right, then it is right."

[Pleater]

The red band is the obvious vertical - your centre back should be the point between the two sets of three white lines. It really can't be anywhere else without making the kilt look lopsided.

When pleating to the sett the whole idea is to recreate perfectly the pattern in the pleated section, and you would usually have a strong vertical band either centre back or have two equidistant from the centre back. You would also try to have the same situation on the front.

The sides are not as important - fudge them as best you can without compromising the placing of the red verticals. The ideal is to have a whole number of repeats around the kilt, so the edges of the pleated section are not really obvious.

The amount of fabric on each side will be the same even if you have apparently one less pleat on the right, as there is an approximately double width pleat as the last pleat - I wonder if the reason there is a larger pleat there is because the same thing happens regularly when pleating to the sett and it just evens things up?

Hmm - lightbulb going on moment?

You then have the two under apron pleats and the aprons and have the same amount of material on both sides of the centre back.

[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

[Alan H]

I counted four times.....always came up with an extra pleat on the far side of the center stripe. I made drop-dead sure that I didn't chalk in an incorrect pleat edge...nope, I didn't.

I figure if I checked everything that many times I'm probably good to go, so I started. I have nine pleats per sett in this tartan, and should have 31 pleats overall in the kilt. I figure if I'm one pleat off it's not much and will be unnoticeable by anyone.

I've also sewn pleats 6-7-8-9 THREE times to get them straight...*grrr*...but that's OK.

[Kilted Taper]

WOW, 31 pleats! I'll have 25 on this one, and think I had 23 on the Anderson. Last night I threw caution to the wind and just started chalking out the pleats using the red stripe as the center. It's going to be tricky when I get to those white stripes (damn they're tiny). Worse comes to worse I take out some stitching and pleat to the stripe. Already basted the apron edges last night.

I do love a challenge!