How should I get my Isle of Skye pleated?

[xman]

I think pleating to the rust block looks best and in fact I am sewing a box pleat this way now.

[Barb T]

Richard-
If you have a cut and paste program on your computer, you can take a picture of the sett (There are a lot on the web). You can start cropping and then paste over and over. You can basically see what every different pleating scheme will look like (Keep in mind that pleat width may hinder some styles of pleating). You can also invent your own fashion pleating (I'm really liking this idea more and more) using this method.

If you want to do this, you have to be careful of two things. First, you have to know what the sett size is so that you can choose "slices" that are the right size for the size pleats that your kilt will have. If you don't do this, you can wind up with a great-looking pleating that simply won't work with your tartan. Here's an example. I was asked to critique a tartan design awhile back, and I didn't know the sett size but tried out a bunch of pleatings while I was waiting to hear what the sett size was. Here are some of the options that I came up with:



I rather liked option C - I thought it had a lot of character and interest. Unfortunately, when I found out what the sett size was, I realized that C would only work for a box pleated kilt that had pleats more than a couple inches across. Although the green stripe in yellow is an obvious option for pleating to the stripe, it turns out that the white-yellow-green complex is so wide that, if you were doing a trad knife-pleated kilt, none of the adjacent blue would show. And you might or might not like what results (A).

Second, if you repeat a rectangular slice of tartan, you might well come up with a pleating that will lose part or all of a stripe in the taper of the pleats from hips to waist, and you won't know it because you've cloned rectangular slices of the tartan. The tartan example below shows that - in D, if the pleats taper, the yellow stripe is lost by the time the pleats reach the waist. If I hadn't cloned and rotated a wedge-shaped piece of the tartan, rather than a rectangle, I might not have discovered that.

[OC Richard]

What colors drew you to this tartan, and what colors do you want to accentuate? The picture that you ask about brings out the purple and green (as does pleating to the black stripe) more than the pictures pleated to the brown stripes or block.

An excellent point!

It's why I'm hesitant about the pleating which uses the rust/brown areas, as it accentuates my least favourite aspect of the tartan. It gives the kilt rear a brownish look very different from the actual tartan. (Not that that's necessarily a bad thing! One of the reasons I favour pleating to the stripe is that it gives two contrasting looks.)

To my eye what really makes this tartan work is the interaction of the purple and green.

The pleatings which maintain this seem to be pleating to the sett, and pleating to the black stripe.

Barbara thanks for the thoughtful posts and all the illustrations! I see what you mean, the way that pleating to the black stripe makes for assymetrical pleats.

By the way, I'm getting a 7 yard kilt with somewhat wide pleats, around 1" wide. For whatever reason I like heavyweight kilts that have a bit less tartan in them and a bit fewer and wider pleats so that the kilt isn't as heavy in the rear.

I'm still pondering my options... thanks again, Richard

[Tartan Hiker]

Sorry I don't have a photo right now (i need to remedy this soon!) but I pleated mine to the gray stripe (it really is gray, not white). I like the contrast between the very purple front and very green back.
I considered pleating to the rust stripes, but rejected that for the reasons that Barb mentioned.

[turpin]

I've made several pleated the following way, and it is by far my favorite pleating for IoS. It's simply pleated to the brown block. I've done two pleated to the white stripe in green, and it's OK, but very green across the back (no photos of those).

Hey! That's my kilt! The first one I saw like that was Phil Corlis' and I had to have one. It was my third kilt and is one of my two favorites, along with my weathered Gordon box by Matt.

I think I'll wear the IOS tomorrow.

[Barb T]

Hey! That's my kilt!

Yes, indeedy, it is! And I liked it so much that I had my son-in-law model it for a couple of photos in TAoK. Turpin was very patient and waited an extra week to get his kilt so that I could hang on to it and photograph it.

[Scott West]

Pleating is, of course, a delicate balance between a tartan's sett and one's eye. I have an IoS tank from Kathy Lare which is pleated to sett (many thanks to fellow Lare-wearer, Riverkilt, for his helpful photos during my formulation phase). IoS is such a tasteful, breathtaking tartan I'm sure however you pleat it will be beautiful.

However, if pressed for an answer, I personally wouldn't pleat to the black stripe. A predominance of somber black on the rear would seem an awkward contrast to the richness of the purple in front. Just my two cents.

[MacMillans son]

[QUOTE=OC Richard;920795]An excellent point!

It's why I'm hesitant about the pleating which uses the rust/brown areas, as it accentuates my least favourite aspect of the tartan. It gives the kilt rear a brownish look very different from the actual tartan.


I agree completely. Different is not inherently a bad thing, and as you pointed out, may actually be what makes a particular pleating option more interesting. But I think in the case of the rust/brown area, on this particular tartan, it actually detracts from the beauty of the tartan instead of enhancing it. And, of course, that is just a function of what it is about this tartan that you and I really like.

As is usually the case, unless there is a structural reason not to go with a particular choice, it's all just opinion. Choose the one you like best, (there may be even more options yet to be presented) and go for it!

Not a bad problem to have really

Brooke

[OC Richard]

Thanks all!

After some pondering and looking at various photos I've told the kiltmaker to pleat it to the pairs of rust lines in the purple.




My conundrum was that I much prefer kilt pleated to the line, but the fact is that there are some tartans the effect of which is dependent on all the elements of the sett being seen together. The visual impact of these tartans is lessened no matter which portion is used for the pleating.

IOS seems to be one of these!

In any case I'm really looking forward to my IOS kilt! Being a one-kilt guy is getting a bit old, though I do love my Muted Drummond Of Perth kilt as much now as the day I got it.

[OC Richard]

My Isle Of Skye arrived!!!

Last Saturday in fact. I came home from a hospital I was piping at (the request of a patient who is not doing well at all) and on my porch was a lovely box from Edinburgh!

An hour later I was wearing it, on the road to the Taste Of Scotland event, where the kilt got many nice remarks.

I'm very happy with the pleating option I went with, pleated to the pairs of rust lines in the purple. Since there's some pure purple showing in the pleats, the kilt rear retains what I like best about IOS, the colour relationship between the green and purple.

Here's the front, with a charcoal jacket I recently got. The necktie is a random one I've had since the 80s. In person its colour blends perfectly with the kilt. These photos came out oddly faded; the actual colours of the kilt are vivid.



Here's the rear showing the pleats. Because of my large waist size (44") a 16oz kilt with a huge number of narrow pleats is very heavy in the rear, so I prefer kilts with fewer, wider pleats. (Note no belt loops, no third strap, just the way I want it.)