Marking pleats to the Sett...

[Gilvray]

I'm just thinking through my pleats and marking up - and wanted to grab some quick advice.

My sett is 5 1/4".

I plucked a pleat size of 5/8" (I seem to feel I have to pick something between 5/8">1" and 1" is too big on a small sett? A sort of feeling that the tiny bit extra in pleat depth will look better?) Maybe utter rubbish?

I'm going to make the pleat split at the waist 17 1/2"

So I will have 29 pleats?

(5 1/4" goes into 17 1/2" 3.3x. At 5/8" a pleat there are 9 repeats in the sett, so 9x3 (27pl) + .3 (3pl) =30... minus 1 because the centre pleat is in both lengths of fabric)



Does this add up?

Also - to get the 9 repeats into the sett I've tried to keep the thick dark blue lines in the start - however my front apron will use the central green bar as the main stripe - so would it be a mistake to leave the pleat marks where they are - should I move it one way or other to get the green bar central to my pleat?

Lastly - there are 20x repeats of the Sett before the front apron on the length of fabric - bearing in mind the underlain deep pleat, there would be 17 pleats in this length, will that be ok to join to the other length and then add the other 12 to the other length - I dont think so because then my center back strip will be 4/5 pleats to the left of center... oh I'm getting confused again... its what you get for trying to do this after a day at work and putting the children to bed.
Thanks everyone!

[ChattanCat]

How much material do you have?
I would recommend that you use the double blue line as the center front. It seems to pop. Whatever you choose for the front, make sure you have the same stripe in the middle back. This may take some planning but it is worth it.

You should mark out your front apron and under apron. Then mark the first and last pleat locations per the "Bible". You can then count the repeats you have available, don't forget to add two setts for the join.

Any pleated to the sett comes with it's own challenges. Yours will be to decide which lines you wan to have on the edge of a certain pleat. You don't want the line or element disapearing as you taper a pleat to the waist. Barb mentions this style of pleating.

Needing more information,

[Gilvray]

Cheers ChattanCat....

I've got 8yrds.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as they say, so I take your point about the double blue although I'll probably stick with the green and allow the blue to be a framework/accent. Good idea about first and last pleats - it would help me feel more confident I'm doing the right thing by counting the setts...

I've just spotted my misunderstanding.... the 'Bible' says on p58 about assuming pleats are 5/8">1" at the hips and I've been thinking about the top of the rise/waist.

I'll go away and think a wee bit more and try and mark the whole thing up - should come good with a bit more time!

[Phogfan86]

OK, a train leaves Philadelphia at a speed of 82 miles an hour at the same time another leaves Chicago at a speed of 78 miles an hour. Both are headed for Albuquerque. If there's a 12 mile per hour headwind,...

[Gilvray]

Phogfan86 - the answers 42!

LOL.....

Och ma brains nae gonna be gud fae much after this! I dinnae ken aboot these pleats!

Right - serious brain on..... time to start reading - its all in the Bible - just gotta get ma heid aroond it.

Update: Right - think I sussed it!

17"1/2 for pleats at waist over 29 pleats = 5/8"
21"3/4 for pleats at hips over 29 pleats = 3/4"

29 pleats... urgh - well at least I should get enough prractice to get the last pleat sticked right! ;)

BTW - I had a go at doing this in decimal as well as the old fashioned way (which was funky) and in the metric approach this website helped: http://www.metricamerica.com/convert...entimeters.htm as it broke down cm's to fractions of an inch unlike the cm/inch calculators that tell you - "oh yes thats 0.7 of an inch - which reauires a little bit more math!)

[Barb T]

A 5 1/4" sett is quite small, and chances are that you won't be able to use all the tartan you have. For a man, I try to make pleats no smaller than 3/4" at the hips. When they're smaller, I think they don't look as good.

If your center front pleat is the wide green stripe, then you either have to have that as your center back pleat (and have an odd number of pleats, which is typical), or you need to split the green stripe and have the center back between two pleats (and have an even # of pleats, which is not common but is perfectly OK).

Sorry - can't write more now. Gotta run to band practice.

[Gilvray]

Thanks Barb - hope Band Practice was good...

I'm going to stick with the green stripe as center - and yes 5"1/4's TINY but its what I've got so I'm kinda stuck with it....

Following the book I've marked the apron, left a 9" gap fromn the bottom of the left hand side of the front apron and there are 17 repeats of the sett before the end of the length.

Having done some math based on a minimum pleat size at the waist of 5/8's I have 29 pleats. This seems to make me 2x sett repeats longer than expected - ie I was expecting to have 14 repeats between the apron and the centre back stripe.

So - should I make less pleats on the left length of fabric? I think that would mean my centre stripe is out of place.

So should I move my centre stripe 2 repeats toward the front apron, re-mark those marked pleats between and make the two lengths join where they need and I'll just have more fabric left over after I've marked the underapron...

It was suggested on another post to leave 2 sett repeats for the joining of the two lenghts...?

If I have to lose a foot then I have to...

Here's what I've got so far...

[ChattanCat]

start from the join. select you center stripe. then mark back to the location of the first pleat instead of going from the first pleat minimum mark. it doesn't matter where you end next to the aprons. it is important that you get the center pleat centered.

[ChattanCat]

Thanks Barb - hope Band Practice was good...

I'm going to stick with the green stripe as center - and yes 5"1/4's TINY but its what I've got so I'm kinda stuck with it....

Following the book I've marked the apron, left a 9" gap fromn the bottom of the left hand side of the front apron and there are 17 repeats of the sett before the end of the length.

Having done some math based on a minimum pleat size at the waist of 5/8's I have 29 pleats. This seems to make me 2x sett repeats longer than expected - ie I was expecting to have 14 repeats between the apron and the centre back stripe.

So - should I make less pleats on the left length of fabric? I think that would mean my centre stripe is out of place.

So should I move my centre stripe 2 repeats toward the front apron, re-mark those marked pleats between and make the two lengths join where they need and I'll just have more fabric left over after I've marked the underapron...

It was suggested on another post to leave 2 sett repeats for the joining of the two lenghts...?

If you have the fabric, I would use the 2x pleat option. It will give you a nice pleat length for the swing.

You need one repeat on the front side of the join and one repeat on the other half of the join. I have used less but only when I am trying to minimize the amount of material used because there just wasn't enough material for enough pleats. You will be ripping off what you don't use and these ripped pieces can be used for fringe, buckles, belt loops, and flashes.

Make sure you have enough material on the other half of the material to have the same number of pleats on each side of the join.

Welcome to kiltmaking!
Cheers,

[Barb T]

I think you'll find it hard to double the sett in the pleats. If you had a tartan with a 4" sett, you could do it. But doubling your sett would give you an effective repeat of over 10", and I don't think you'll be able to get enough pleats into your kilt with that (i.e., you'll have a small number of very big pleats).

So should I move my centre stripe 2 repeats toward the front apron, re-mark those marked pleats between and make the two lengths join where they need and I'll just have more fabric left over after I've marked the underapron...

Yes. If you want to have fewer pleats that are slightly bigger, you just mark more than half the pleats on the first piece of fabric. It doesn't matter that the join won't be in the center of the back - it won't show anyway. And, truly, it doesn't matter whether you use all the tartan or not.

If I have to lose a foot then I have to...

But better to have one longer piece left over at the end of your second piece than two short chunks from each piece!

BTW - when I'm laying out a kilt, I typically start by sticking pins in the tartan where I think I'll want the pleats. That gives me the option of moving them around a bunch before I decide. So, I check where I think I'll want the apron, and I stick a pin in where I think the center front will be, and the apron edges, too. Then I'll put a pin in at a possible center back, and I'll work back toward the apron edge, sticking a pin in where I think I want each pleat. If I have too many pleats, I'll go back and move the center back pin one repeat toward the apron, and move all the other pins again. If I still have too many pleats, I'll move the center back again. When I'm happy with the layout, I'll mark the pleats and the edges of the apron and take the pins out.

I actually don't use chalk to mark the pleats. Instead, I use a couple stitches of white basting thread. I typically cart the kilts I'm working on around, and I find that the chalk rubs off. Marking with basting thread is almost as fast, and I don't lose the marks.

Oh - and, as long as you lay out the center back pleat on the first piece of tartan, you'll always have enough tartan for the rest of the pleats on the second half. Because you have an odd number of pleats, you'll have one less pleat to lay out on the second half, and that will give you just enough for the inverted pleat next to the underapron. The only time you'd have to be careful is if you had a kilt with an even number of pleats. This might happen if you're pleating to the stripe, in which case it's easy to eliminate a pleat. It can also happen if you decide the split the center back between two pleats instead of having a center back pleat. If this happens, you do have to make sure you have enough tartan on the second half or else take out two (not one) pleats.