Kilt Pleats

[GLASGOW]

Good Day, My Friends!

I'm getting ready to get my second kilt. My current is the Glasgow Ditrict tartan, with conventional knife pleats. Rocky at USA Kilts did a great job!

I have since come in to a bolt of Black Watch. About 30 years old, a darker & muted Watch than I've seen before. So I'm trying to decide between Knife or Box Pleats. Thoughts, Opinions?

[piperdbh]

Box pleats *usually* take up less cloth than knife pleats, depending on which stripe they're pleated to.

[TheOfficialBren]

Box pleats. I want to get one. I love the look. I like seeing more variety than the standard knife pleats.

Kingussie and Reverse Kingussie pleats are nice, too.

[David Thorpe]

I am sure tht others with more experience than I will chime in here, but I do know that there are box pleats and then there are box pleats. Matt Newsome specializes in making box-pleated kilts from four yards of tartan. The pleats are fairly wide and few, but the pictures I've seen of these kilts are very nice indeed. They are reported by wearers to be lighter than a conventional 8-yard knife-pleated kilt and are quite handsome but decidedly different.
At the other end of the spectrum is the military box-pleated kilt. These are pleated by folding the pleat back on itself, so that from the hem end they look like a box pleat on top of a knife pleat. Again, a different look from a conventional knife-pleated kilt and quite heavy by comparison.
Somewhere in the middle would be Lady Chrystal's double box-pleated kilt, another attractive option.
A search of "box pleat" will, I am sure, yield a plethora of threads on the subject.

[TheOfficialBren]

Isn't there also a pleat called a "rolled pleat" or some variation thereof? There are many pleating options that seem to go unsung, even by the rabble.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Box pleats *usually* take up less cloth than knife pleats, depending on which stripe they're pleated to.

Not really, David. As I've said on here before the style of pleating really has no bearing on the amount of cloth use. For example, I can make a 6 yard knife pleated kilt or a 6 yard box pleated kilt and one will utilize the exact same amount of cloth as the other.

The only thing I would add is that the historic/traditional box pleated kilt of the early 19th century was made with an average of four yards and pleated to the stripe. Though many modern day "casual" kilts are made of roughly four yards and knife pleated, they won't be pleated to the stripe, nor to the sett. Pleating a four yard kilt to a regular pattern like this makes for very wide pleats, which looks just fine in a box pleat, but a little odd in a knife pleat to our modern eyes. So if one wanted a knife pleated kilt pleated to a particular line or to the sett, I'd recommend 5 or 6 yards at the least.

[Tobus]

At the other end of the spectrum is the military box-pleated kilt. These are pleated by folding the pleat back on itself, so that from the hem end they look like a box pleat on top of a knife pleat. Again, a different look from a conventional knife-pleated kilt and quite heavy by comparison.

In case anyone needed a visual on what a military box pleat looks like, here it is. We've had some lively discussions in the past on what exactly the MBP is, how to make it, or how to even describe it. Before we go down that road again, maybe it's better to just look at a photo.

Personally, if it were me, I'd go with the military box pleat. Nothing swishes better.

[Pleater]

A bolt is - traditionally, 40 yards - I suspect that you don't have a bolt of cloth.

How much do you have? Is it double width - 54 inches wide, and do you know how much it weighs? The weight is fairly important to judge just what might give the best effect.

The shorter length box pleated kilts look better, I think, if made from substantial fabric, 16 oz to the running yard of 54inches or thereabouts. Lighter materials will make perfectly good kilts right down to 10oz fabric, though those are the standard type for wearing when competing in Highland dancing as, made with lots of deep knife pleats, they swing and swirl wonderfully as the dancer performs on stage. They might just 'do a Marilyn' in a wind though.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[TheOfficialBren]

Wow, Tobus! Superb quality pleats, there!

[llyd]

was gonna say..ann beat me to it...a whole bolt? how about making a career out of making kilts out of it...

four yard box pleat, then a kingussie tank?