Sett vs. Stripe

[YOJiMBO20]

Ah. I had presumed that the cloth was one that was already available to the kiltmaker.

The computer image method, then, is a good one. I even went so far as to print a 8x14 page of the tartan, simulating a length of the cloth, and folded it various ways. (someone else said ADD )

I think you mean OCD. Having ADD would make it difficult to focus on that task...unless you get into hyper focus mode, in which case it would be difficult to do anything other​ than that task.

[OC Richard]

Things to think about

1) pleating to the sett appears to be a fairly recent thing. I don't know why, but sometime in the 20th century it became standard for civilian kilts. (Standard because usually if you order a kilt and don't specify it will come pleated to the sett.) As in so many things pertaining to Highland Dress, the Scottish regiments retain older ways, and regimental kilts are pleated to the line.

2) If you subscribe to the general aesthetic of 'form follows function' you would probably prefer kilts pleated to the line. Kilts pleated to the line show their structure, while kilts pleated to the sett attempt to disguise it.

3) Kilts pleated to the line can have their buckles & straps moved to fit bigger or smaller and retain the original appearance of the rear of the kilt. Kilts pleated to the sett will have a certain point in the tartan centered in the rear as well as in the front, and the rear becomes offset when you move the straps & buckles.

4) There are some tartans which, for the tartan to retain its full effect, require all of the tartan's colours to be seen in their original proportions. For these tartans no matter what portion of the sett you select for replication across the kilt's rear, the rear of the kilt looks weaker (from a design point of view) than the front.

5) There are three main ways to pleat a kilt, to the sett, to a line, and to a block. The latter means that the pleats are devoid of vertical elements, in other words the rear of the kilt has only horizontal stripes.

6) When you order a kilt you can ask the kiltmaker to send you photos of the tartan pinned in various ways, to see which you prefer. I did that with my Isle Of Skye; the kiltmaker sent me photos of it pleated in three or four different ways.

[McMurdo]

Here are the test pinnings for my Scottish Wildcat Tartan. I'm not sure why but anytime Barb has done a kilt for me it's been pleated to the stripe, with the Royal Naval it's because it was a tartan for a military association so to the stripe felt like the right thing to do. At any rate this does show what a difference pleating makes to the look of the back of the kilt

[plaid preacher]

One thing that I don't think has been mentioned too much yet is the sett of the tartan itself. Some setts are very busy with lots of lines running through them, while others have blocks of colour but few lines. In such cases pleating to the line may not be best option. As OCRichard mentioned above, these days the trend seem to be that civilian world has gone to sett and the military retains the pleat to line. One thing many military kilts (although not all) share is a common field. Many military tartans are Black Watch base with lines added to them. (i.e. - McKenzie, Gordon, Forbes, Gunn, Douglas, Lamont, Campbell of Argyll etc).

This is my kilt (Lamont) pleated to the stripe:



The lines are quite prominent and show off the swing of the kilt well when in motion.

All of that being said, sometimes you can cheat the tartan- as it were. Here is a kilt I started at Kilt Kamp a couple of years ago. It is the Maple Leaf tartan, which really has no discernable stripe, and is challenging to pleat. I ended up "pleating to to the stripe" by centring the line between two blocks in each pleat. I think it worked.




As McMurdo noted above it is worth having a kiltmaker pin up the tartan several ways to see what looks best.

[Dollander]

I think you mean OCD. Having ADD would make it difficult to focus on that task...unless you get into hyper focus mode, in which case it would be difficult to do anything other​ than that task.

Well, like I said, ADD goes both ways.

But back to the topic of pleats, I got curious as to how a tartan of my own creation would look pleated to stripe. However, I was wary of posting it at the time since USA Kilts had yet to announce that their tartan designer was live. But since they now have, here they are:

murrayofscheyichbiredstripe.jpg

murrayofscheyichbigreenstripe.jpg

Notice how the first one de-emphasizes the green somewhat, but is still less of a contrast than the second one which more greatly de-emphasizes the red. So I'd probably go with the first one were I to pleat it to stripe versus sticking to the sett. However, the second one would obviously be better if such a contrast is what you prefer.

[OC Richard]

Here are the test pinnings for my Scottish Wildcat Tartan.

My favourite! I love the depth or gravitas this gives the rear of the kilt.

I like both pleatings to the line, too. I assume that if this tartan was a traditional military tartan one of those would be the choice (WWTAD?).

I can't find the photo of the test pleatings the maker of my IOS sent me, but I went with this, which I'm very happy with. Pleated to the line, actually pairs of lines. The military choice would almost certainly have been the prominent white line, but to my eye it makes the rear of the kilt too pastel-toned.

[McMurdo]

My first thought was to pleat to the yellow line. Barb sent me the tests and we quickly decided that was not the way to go. I am extremely happy with the way the kilt came out.

[OC Richard]

My first thought was to pleat to the yellow line. Barb sent me the tests and we quickly decided that was not the way to go. I am extremely happy with the way the kilt came out.

Which did you go with? (I know I've seen pics of your kilt but I can't remember the pleating.)

[McMurdo]

Which did you go with? (I know I've seen pics of your kilt but I can't remember the pleating.)

It's to the block I guess

[imbrius]

I think mine (Armstrong Modern in comically vivid acrylic thread) is supposed to be pleated to the stripe. I say "supposed" because it seems to be pleated to... nothing? The pleats aren't even all a uniform size. When I basted and re-pressed this last time, I saw that (A) it definitely wasn't attempting to be pleated to the sett, and there was an average of one red stripe per pleat (average because there was one more stripe than there were pleats so one pleat has two stripes and the position of stripe on pleat is pretty random), so I'm guessing it was supposed to be pleated to stripe but because I paid $75 for it, pleating to anything was beyond the scope of work.