Alan,

I go at this from the opposite end of the calculations, more or less following Barb's book. For example, I start with the size of the cloth and work from there. Let's assume a 4' cloth. With a 6" sett and waist of 40" I get a total of 11 pleats at the back. Here is how I get to it.

Four yards of cloth equals 144" of cloth (it's easier to work in inches). If I understand correctly, Barb says to set aside 76" for the front of the kilt (inside and outside aprons and other stuff). This leaves 68" of cloth to go around the back where the pleats will be (total cloth length less length of cloth for the front).

In 68" of cloth one only gets 11.33 repeats of the pattern (68" divided by sett size). So pleated to the strip there can *only* be 11 pleats!

Since the waist size is 40", and the size of the waist at the back of the kilt will be half that (20"), and because the pleats go half way around the waist, then all the pleats will need to fit into those 20" of waist at the back. This gives a pleat size (revealed pleat) of 1.76" and a depth of pleat of 2.12, and a depth to width ratio of only "1.2:1".

Five yards of fabric? 17 pleats; 1.15" wide; 2.42" deep (ratio of 2.1:1)

Six yards? 23 pleats; 0.86" wide; 2.57" deep (ratio of 3:1)

While you could go with five yards of material, I think a more "traditional" look would require six yards (with a 6" sett and 40" waist). Note that this is for knife pleats and if you are getting Matt to make a box pleated kilt, then none of this really applies.

Make sense? Errors?

Kevin