Different pleats for camo kilt

[Mipi]

Hi! My intention was to make liht summer kilt form Camo fabric, box pleated, X-Kilt like. But then found out about Kingussie pleats and "reverse" Kingussie pleats.

Now, which of them will hold the pleats the best?
With the same amount of fabric (limited), which would give better look and resist to wind (light fabric)?


THX!

[Pleater]

Well - I'm wearing my woodland camo kilt pleated in the reverse Kingussie style this morning.

Having worn one of my very first kilts which is pleated in the Kingussie style I have to say it is a relief not to have the pleats catching on things.

With pleats opening to the front the Kingussie style hangs up on cupboard and door handles, the edges of the furniture, and any vegetation - this area is called the New Forest but really it is a lot of heathland and low scrub and so if you are thinking of going out into the great outdoors, the reverse Kingussie is the one.

By the way - will you have to divide the material into strips so the pattern runs the right way?

With this pattern I had to cut it into selvage to selvage strips to get the right effect. It did mean that I used just about every inch of the material. I made the joins at the inner folds of the pleats as that is the easiest place to fit them in. You can even include the shaping of the pleats into the waist with the join there.

[Tartan Hiker]

Of course, you'll need to stitch along the edges of each pleat, both outside and inside edges. Poly/cotton will not hold a pleat that is set only by ironing. This is specified in the X-kilt instructions and is not optional.

[Finn]

I agree with TH- sew in the pleats & they'll hold just fine. I recommend box pleating for a camo kilt, but that is mostly personal taste.
Good luck!

[Tartan Hiker]

And if you need extra mass use the "French box pleat" that is featured in this thread:

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/d...608/index.html

[Pleater]

With this being a lightweight kilt I would advise that you don't put sharp pleats in - in fact iron the fabric flat and let it lie in rounded folds - otherwise the edges of the fabric will wear, lose colour and threads will break fairly quickly.

You can't really treat a light weight fabric in the same way as a heavy one, and techniques suitable for a wook kilt don't work on a cotton one. The wool will deform out of a flat plane and allow you to shape it. Cotton will not.

My camo kilt is actually only sewn at the waistband and hem, the pleats lie free to move, but because the overlap around the body they tend to be almost organic and do conform to the underlying shape - possibly better than I could have sewn them down.

I iron the fabric flat as far up from the hem as I can get the iron into the pleats. I then let the lower part hang over the edge of the board and iron the top part as pleats so as to minimise the volume. Even without a tartan type pattern line to follow it is not difficult to see where the folds are.

This is me being frugal and wanting my kilts to last a good few years, if you don't mind making new lighweight kits maybe every two years then hammer in the folds and rivet them in place.

[Ryan Ross]

I agree that the reverse kingussie is certainly the way to go, with box pleating (or double box pleating) being the next best thing. Purely on looks, I think the kingussie rules, but I imagine that you may have more practical matters on your mind. Also, the reverse kingussie is still an attractive arangement.

[Tartan Hiker]

Geez, Pleater, you must be really hard on your kilts! I've never seen any real wear on the edges of my pleats. Sure, they lighten up a bit with printed fabrics, but that's pretty typical in almost any garment, and doesn't detract from the looks of the kilt in my opinion. That could just be me and my past life in faded jeans. I could only hope to live long enough to wear out the pleat edges of one of my hiking kilts!

[Pleater]

Yes, I supose that I am rather hard on clothes - it saves on being hard on skin, though.

It could be the sand in this area - we are within sight of the sea, and I do need to wash my kilts quite a lot too, though I do that by hand now as it is gentler than the machine.

Stains from cooking and doing the dishes also take a toll, so when I changed to my lighter kilts for the summer, as I have done recently as the weather has changed, I did notice that some of them are beginning to look really rather weathered, if not slightly battered. Well, if the kids can walk around with hardly anything on and holes in what they do wear people can't really complain about a few faded patches and mends on my things.

I use domestic knitting machines for my knitware - spending six months creating a masterpiece in Aran knitting only to damage it on a briar or gorse bush doesn't make good use of my time.

I have got patterns from our own Kevin for some garments which I plan to make in linen and cotton to see how they stand up to wear.

[Mipi]

So, the reverse Kingussie will be. I'll stitch down the pleats, while I rather make a new kilt from time to time, then iron the pleats all the time.

Thanks!