Help Josh Make a Kilt Part2

[NorCalPiper]

Ok Y'All-
So I need help with determining pleat size. TAoKM has a whole part in determining this and I'm confused. My next attempt is going to be with tartan. I've scored on ebay for 100$ a piece of 3.5 meters DW regimental weight material by Robert Peebles. It even has a NATO stamp on the Tag, so this should be a really good piece to try my first real attempt. With my solid color kilts, there was no striping or sett to make a determination. Not knowing how to correctly us e pleat size formula was an issue with each kilt.

So please help me to understand how this works. I haven't received the tartan yet, so I can't measure the sett- but its military sett Mackenzie. Maybe someone out there might have the measurements. Here's a pic of what i won-

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...ayphotohosting


So 3.5 meters=8 yards. My waist is 42, hip is 46. I've decided to do a waist spit of A:22,W:20 and a hip split an even 23/23 (Does that sound OK)

Using this, how do I determine pleat size? Thanks-Josh

[Alan H]

Are you going to pleat to sett, to stripe, make a military box pleat, or what? It's good to figure that out first, if you can.

You want your pleat reveals to be somewhere between 1 inch and 1/2 an inch. Let's split the difference and say 3/4 of an inch.

OK, your hip split is 23, yes? That means you want to cover 23 inches of rump with pleats.

23 divided by .75 = 30.66 so you will have 30-31 pleats.

If you use a 1 inch reveal, you'll have 23 pleats.

If you use a 7/8 pleat reveal you'll have 26.28 pleats

There's some perception that "the more pleats the better" and I'd like to disabuse you of that notion. I would strongly recommend not making pleat reveals smaller than 1/2 an inch. They don't look any better, in fact IMHO they look worse, and you're just going through a lot of unnecessary work. If you go larger than 1-inch then the kilt starts looking like a "5-yarder" which of course some people don't like, never mind that if you are a seriously big guy and the sett is super-big you might HAVE to divvy up 8 yards of cloth into those sized pleats.

Honestly, this is not rocket science, however much depends on the sett size. Wait until you have the stuff and can measure the sett.

[Alan H]

Here's how to figure it out, roughly.

You're going to have 8 yards of fabric, we'll assume. Let's say that the sett is 6 inches. It won't be (probably) but you can repeat these calculations with your numbers.

6 inch sett means that in a yard there are 6 setts, right? 6 x 6 = 36

OK, assume you'll need a full yard for the over-apron, the under-apron pleat, and the fringe. Assume you'll need another yard for the kick pleat and the under-apron. That leaves you 6 yards for the pleats, right?

If you have 6 yards, and there are 6 setts per yard, then you have 36 "setts-worth" of cloth to work with. But if you make 3/4 inch deep pleats, and you pleat to stripe which is a good size, then we've already figured out that you'll have 30-31 pleats and use up 30-31 setts of cloth.

Conclusion, you have enough cloth to pleat to the stripe and have 3/4 inch pleats, which is a very traditional-looking kilt.

What if the sett is 8 inches?

Again, assume you'll need a full yard for the over-apron, the under-apron pleat, and the fringe. Assume you'll need another yard for the kick pleat and the under-apron. That leaves you 6 yards for the pleats, right?

If the sett is 8 inches, then there are 4.5 setts per yard. You have 6 yards.

6 x 4.5 = 27 so you have 27 setts worth of cloth to pleat up to go over your rumpus.

We already saw that a 7/8 pleat reveal gives you 26.28 pleats, right.

So you could TRY to split 1/16th inch hairs (waste of time IMHO, others may differ on this) and try to make pleats with a

23 inches split divided by 27 pleats = 0.851851 inch wide pleat...or you could realize that fitting a kilt is not an utterly exact science, make 26 pleats and ooch the thing up or down on your waist an inch or so until it buckled right.

[fluter]

Josh, what's in TAoK is an algorithm. I did exactly what you have been doing... but the book was not intended to be used in the abstract.

When you have a piece of fabric in front of you, you will be able to walk through the steps and get to the right place!

[vorpallemur]

So 3.5 meters=8 yards. My waist is 42, hip is 46. I've decided to do a waist spit of A:22,W:20 and a hip split an even 23/23 (Does that sound OK)

Using this, how do I determine pleat size? Thanks-Josh

3.5 meters is about 3.8 yards. (A meter is 39.37 inches).

[raibeart_dubh]

Josh, what's in TAoK is an algorithm. I did exactly what you have been doing... but the book was not intended to be used in the abstract.

When you have a piece of fabric in front of you, you will be able to walk through the steps and get to the right place!

Fluter is so right! I had the book before I had the fabric and started trying to work things out beforehand. I got frustrated. Then Barb T. answered my cries for help on a couple posts here. She said basically the same thing, wait until you have the fabric in front of you then follow the steps.

So far it's working out pretty well for my first attempt. Be patient, Barb and Elsie's instructions fall into place nicely once you actually have the material in hand.