Nice example of pleating to the sett

[Akilter]

It certainly has improved my looks!!

Thank you again Barb!

[creagdhubh]

Work. Of. Art. Thank you for showing us, Barb! And I agree with Artificer that the brown straps and brass buckles really kick it up to 11.

That's what I opted for with my Barb T. made kilt. THE best kilt I have ever owned. Bar none.

[David]

A real cracker of a kilt.

[ForresterModern]

Barb, I am going to play the "devil's advocate" in your thread, not because I disagree with you-----of all 16 of my kilts only one, a Kingussie, is pleated to stripe, so you can tell I am a "pleat to sett please" kinda guy. But with each kilt the maker usually sends options for pleating to various stripes for consideration, as you do. No the devil in me would love it if you could post the pics of this particular tartan and the various trials you made with pleating it to stripe, to show all of us just exactly why certain tartans just will NOT pleat to anything but the sett. I know your explanation will detail the problems that arise with finishing the taper in the fell with disappearing stripes and all. Looking forward to it as an educational event.

Sorry, the Devil made me do it.

[Barb T]

Although I almost always do test pinnings to send to the customer, I didn't actually do any test pleatings for this piece of tartan - it is one that simply doesn't pleat well to the stripe. The pictures and explanation below will show why it was pointless to take the time to do so. I'll also add a couple photos of test pinnings of other tartans that illustrate somewhat different points.

But let's start with the Scott. The standard choice for pleating to the stripe is to select the central stripe of one of the pivots (a pivot is a place in a symmetric tartan where the tartan sett reverses so that it is a mirror image across the pivot). In the pic below, the two annotated stripes are the pivots in the tartan. Pleats in a trad knife pleated kilt are typically 3/4"-1" across at the hips and 5/8"-3/4" at the waist. Of course this varies with the size of the sett, the shape of the person, and the amount of tartan you have, but these numbers are pretty typical. A pleat that's 7/8-1" across at the hips would have a little bit of white on each side, and that white edge would vanish as the pleat tapers toward the waist. Even if the pleat were only 3/4" at the hips, it would still leak a little bit into the white. The only way to make a pleat without the vanishing white on each side would be to have the pleat less than 3/4" at the hips. That's pretty small on a guy and would require more than 8 yards of tartan. And that's provided that you actually like the rather dull and muddy effect of pleats that only showed the dark brown and tan - the horizontal stripes would dominate, and you'd have serious lawnchair effect.



The pic below shows 5 other possibilities for pleating to the stripe. You could pick the red stripe centered in the tan, but the biggest you could make the pleats would be 1/2". You could pick the prominent yellow stripe, but to center it, the pleat couldn't be more than 1/2" across or it would leak into the white. And you'd have to like the asymmetry of the pleat (gray on one side of the yellow and brown on the other). You could also try pleating to the block, but the tan and dark brown blocks would give only 5/8" wide pleats, and the gray block only 1/2" pleats. None of these options is acceptable. About the only thing you could do would be to have a split pleat (e.g., half brown and half tan or tan with brown on one side and gray on the other).



When I pinned up options for your Maple Leaf, Forrester, I'm pretty sure that I sent you the following. It would only work if the person's shape did not require much taper from the hips to the waist. If the pleats had to taper, the edge red stripe would be lost.



And here's another pinning I did for a different customer, who asked if he could have the MacPherson pleated to the stripe. You'll see that it's certainly do-able, although I thought that the stripes felt all crammed together, particularly at the top of the kilt where the white essentially merges. He ultimately chose pleating to the sett (see post #12 above).



And last, I made a post a couple of years ago about tartans that are difficult to pleat to the stripe. You can find it here:

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...-stripe-33454/

[Calgacus]

Hi Barb,

I thought Macpherson pleated to the stripe worked rather well, so here's mine.

[Barb T]

I thought MacPherson pleated to the stripe worked rather well, so here's mine.]

As always it depends on the size of the sett, the size of the person, the waist-hip differential, and the amount of tartan you have. As it happens, the customer already had a MacPherson kilt (modern, I believe), pleated to the stripe, and it looks great. For the kilt I was making, the combination of the sett size and his measurements (and the fact that he needed a fair amount of pleat taper) put the white stripes very close to the edges of the pleats. I could have solved the problem by not using all 8 yards and making each pleat bigger, but he chose pleating to the sett so that I could use the full kilt length.

[Calgacus]

Thanks once again, Barb, for the fascinating insights! You have made me appreciate how much of an art there is to kiltmaking.

[Nathan]

Great looking kilt and informative thread!!

[creagdhubh]

As always it depends on the size of the sett, the size of the person, the waist-hip differential, and the amount of tartan you have. As it happens, the customer already had a MacPherson kilt (modern, I believe), pleated to the stripe, and it looks great. For the kilt I was making, the combination of the sett size and his measurements (and the fact that he needed a fair amount of pleat taper) put the white stripes very close to the edges of the pleats. I could have solved the problem by not using all 8 yards and making each pleat bigger, but he chose pleating to the sett so that I could use the full kilt length.

Precisely, Barb!

Here is a photo of me wearing a kilt in the Macpherson Red Modern tartan from Lochcarron's Strome range. Whereas I was indeed quite fond of this kilt, I am no longer fond of pleating to the stripe with the various Macpherson tartans. I prefer sett pleating now in order to "show off" the lovely sett all away around. I sold this particular kilt a little while back.