What's the difference?

[Mattg]

Ok, this has been cropping up in me ol' brain for a while....you have a 4 to 5 yard great kilt or belted plaid, and that's enough to cover you and go around your chest or however you choose to wear it, but then you have an 8 yard tank that just goes around your waist...how is that?
How can 4 or 5 yards be enough to go around and over, but 8 yards just go around? I've never had or even been up close to an 8 yarder, so do they go around and around?
I hope this doesn't reveal all of my ignorance:rolleyes:

[Colin]

I may be wrong here, but a belted plaid doesn't have the percission in the pleats. The pleats are hand folded and than the kilt is belted on. An 8 yard kilt is sewn together and the percision in the pleating is very important.

My take on it anyway.

[Mattg]

So the larger pleats, and probably more pleats, will take up that much fabric?

[Colin]

I am sure someone with more knowledge will jump in, but I am not sure a belted plaid is pleated as detailed as an 8 yard. Are belted plaids subject to the size of the sett? stripe or sett choices? or are they just based on size (ie 2 inch pleats regardless of sett or stripe)?

[cavscout]

the 4 - 5 yards in a great kilt is "double width" cloth. so you have a piece of cloth 12' long by 5' wide to make up a great kilt.

An 8 yard tailored kilt is single width so it is a piece 24' long by 2' wide.

Hope I didn't misunderstand the question .

[Colin]

Here's a good reference for putting on a belted plaid http://fullmoon.typepad.com/photos/kilt/index.html

where as with an 8 yard kilt the under apron wraps around the front and the apron goes over top of this (like the casuals today too.)

[cavscout]

Hre's another picture I think represents putting on the great kilt well.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Colin,

That web site you referenced has a *9 yard* long belted plaid, which is easily twice as long as it needs to be. Other than that, though, the basic method it shows for putting it on is correct.

A great kilt (belted plaid or feilidh-mhor) is a different animal entirely than a modern tailored kilt. The belted plaid is an untailored length of cloth that it some 4 to 6 yards long (4 being closer to the average) and 50" to 60" wide (wide enough to reach from your knees to above your head).

Historically, this would have been made from two lengths of 25" to 30" wide material sewn together along one of the long ends to form the double-width peice you need. Today, though, most fabric is already available double-width and so you don't need to do this. (This is also why a lot of people -- like the guy in the web site -- think that the belted plaid was 9 yards long. Because often 9 yards of cloth were used, but 9 yards single width, meaning the finished plaid would be 4.5 yards long).

As you can see in the photos on the web site Colin linked to, the bottom of the plaid fell about the knee, and the upper portion was wrapped about the shoulders.

The feilidh-beag, which evolved from the feilidh-mhor (great kilt) was also about 4 yards long on average, but only the lower 25" to 30". Like the belted plaid, it was untailored. The cloth was simply gathered and belted about the waist.

The tailored kilt, that evolved from the feilidh-beag, originally also only was 4 yards long (and box pleated: see http://kilts.albanach.org/yardage.html). It was over the course of the nineteenth century that more cloth was added, until eventually by the late 1800s you have the 8 yard knife pleated kilt that is the standard today.

This kilt contains twice as much cloth as the original tailored kilt, with the excess cloth being utilized in the pleating in the rear of the kilt.

I hope this helps!
Matt