Designing a tartan and how to pleat it

[Semiomniscient]

Nice-looking tartan. This would pleat to red line nicely. The distance between the two yellow lines can be a bit tricky, though. Our Hunting MacMillan tartan features the same element and in some weaves (depending on sett size) you either have to have a wider pleat featuring both yellow lines or a very narrow pleat featuring one yellow line. Just something to think about.

I'm encouraged that you to put black guard stripes on both the yellow and red stripes. I find that this small addition makes a big difference in how good a tartan looks in the weathered color scheme.

Yes, I think the yellow lines are out, although I may check to see how it does pleating to one of them just so I can cover my bases with our committee. This is probably my number one choice for our tartan. The double yellow might have worked with a box-pleat, which is what I wear (until I get my Kinguissie later this month). But the band needs knife pleats, so I'm learning how to make it work.

Thanks! The guard stripes I've found really make it look cleaner and more pronounced. Oddly enough, I figured this out doing old style video game graphics.

[Chas]

James, as nice as your design is I think it lacks something. The band is going to be wearing this design for, well forever. It looks like so many others in the Register. MacLeod, MacKenzie and and and... You have this once in a lifetime golden opportunity to create "Oh Wow", but at the moment, all I am seeing is "safe".

I really think you should be consulting with Matt and Rocky and with Rex.

Sorry.

Regards

Chas

[Paul Henry]

Something you need to bear in mind is the tapering from the hips to waist, this is different for everyone but a pleat might be 3/4" on the hips and go to 1/2" on the waist..For the stripe pleating to be pleasing I think nothing of the stripe should disappear by the time it gets to the narrowest bit. This means in essence that whatever stripe you choose it should be able to be contained within the narrow bit of the pleat width.
Using your new pictures, the red line seems fine, the light blue fine as well( although as I mentioned earlier some like the colours to be mirrored precisely, but it's not essential), but I think the double yellow lines probably wouldn't work if they are wider than 1/2" (using the current measurements).
When I get a new piece of cloth for a customer, I make up a little pleat shape in card, I use it to measure the distances when I am sewing, but it's also such a useful guideto be able to show the client what works and what doesn't.To be able to see the actual pleat size makes the decision very much faster!

I also put a few notches on it so I can work out the placement very quickly.Making the template is really very fast, and it really is very useful
I know you are working from pictures/print outs, but it might be worth actually cutting a few up and making the actual pleat widths, just to see, to be honest you could take any measurements just to see how it affects the looks, especially as when you get to the real thing, 12 or more band members are going to be 12 different sizes as well!

[Semiomniscient]

Something you need to bear in mind is the tapering from the hips to waist, this is different for everyone but a pleat might be 3/4" on the hips and go to 1/2" on the waist..For the stripe pleating to be pleasing I think nothing of the stripe should disappear by the time it gets to the narrowest bit. This means in essence that whatever stripe you choose it should be able to be contained within the narrow bit of the pleat width.
Using your new pictures, the red line seems fine, the light blue fine as well( although as I mentioned earlier some like the colours to be mirrored precisely, but it's not essential), but I think the double yellow lines probably wouldn't work if they are wider than 1/2" (using the current measurements).
When I get a new piece of cloth for a customer, I make up a little pleat shape in card, I use it to measure the distances when I am sewing, but it's also such a useful guideto be able to show the client what works and what doesn't.To be able to see the actual pleat size makes the decision very much faster!
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I also put a few notches on it so I can work out the placement very quickly.Making the template is really very fast, and it really is very useful
I know you are working from pictures/print outs, but it might be worth actually cutting a few up and making the actual pleat widths, just to see, to be honest you could take any measurements just to see how it affects the looks, especially as when you get to the real thing, 12 or more band members are going to be 12 different sizes as well!

Excellent! And thanks! (I began thinking that the yellow lines wouldn't work after more careful review... which is fine, because they're my least favorite anyway.) I did the light blue based on your example of non mirror images, and that one has turned out to be my favorite.

I really like the card idea and will mention it to our committee. I'm trying to get everyone to begin narrowing down my some 13 different designs, and one of the decision factors is going to be how it looks pleated to stripe. Now one of our members has mentioned preference for pleating to sett... which I don't personally care for.
I am sure to continue posting as we move forward in our endeavor. Your help has been most valuable to me. :-)

[Paul Henry]

There is a lot more going on here, and two things spring to mind. From a kiltmakers point of view the busier a design is, the fewer permutations it can be pleated to easily, as it's useful to have a little bit of spare colour on the edges of the pleats so that no extra colour shows through.Secondly how many colours? do I count 8? most weavers don't really want to do more than 6, at least they will for an extra charge, but sometimes I find that using too many colours leads to a certain "muddying" of the other colours, and that is not always desirable.
I see you have guarded the red and yellow, I'm not a complete fan of that as it makes the lines really jump out, some like, some don't, but it does give a multi layered ( almost 3D) effect to the tartan.

[Semiomniscient]

There is a lot more going on here, and two things spring to mind. From a kiltmakers point of view the busier a design is, the fewer permutations it can be pleated to easily, as it's useful to have a little bit of spare colour on the edges of the pleats so that no extra colour shows through.Secondly how many colours? do I count 8? most weavers don't really want to do more than 6, at least they will for an extra charge, but sometimes I find that using too many colours leads to a certain "muddying" of the other colours, and that is not always desirable.
I see you have guarded the red and yellow, I'm not a complete fan of that as it makes the lines really jump out, some like, some don't, but it does give a multi layered ( almost 3D) effect to the tartan.

I realize it's busier, I guess that's the purpose of this one. It can be adjusted if the pleating options are not to our committee's liking too. I think it is 8 colors... but our Society is interested in possibly buying a bolt. I would hope that they would be interested in having that kind of business from a group that's been established for 35 years (that is, with the potential to buy more tartan in the future.) I think since the sett size is now (give or take) 9", pleating to the red, light blue, or single yellow stripes, should all still be viable as there is enough base color to cover either side for knife pleats.
I can go eitherway on dark guard stripes depending on the rest of the tartan. In this case, I prefer it and I think I've created a 3D or depth effect with the black and dark blues.