How an Engineer lays out pleats

[kiltedwolfman]

I have made well over 100 kilts since becoming a kiltmaker and I can easily say that I have yet to find a tartan that this method doesn't work for. Now some tartans are royal pain in the but after some cursing and coffee a pleating solution is always found.

[unixken]

...after some cursing and coffee a pleating solution is always found.

The force is strong with this one.

[HarveyH]

Now some tartans are royal pain in the but after some cursing and coffee a pleating solution is always found.

I'm not a kilt maker - but I can understand the difficulty is that some sett's don't quite work easily with such a regular approach and that a fudge is needed by making one pleat slightly wider or narrower to accommodate a particular stripe. I am amazed by the skill that makers use to do this, having an eye for the pattern and what the result will look like - so that viewing the kilt one can't even see the very slight shifts in pleat size that makers use to make the pleats work.

[tripleblessed]

Steve, many thanks for this post. One of the (many) things which have kept me from attempting a kilt is the pleating.
As a working technician in the arts, my solutions were described as mystifying, as an engineering solution in artist's
clothing, and as whole-brained. All agreed they worked well, but often didn't make sense to anyone else. I couldn't explain, as I typically had done all the math in my head, so I'd just tell the engineers I wasn't stopping my crew, as I
knew it would work, to please run the numbers when they got back to their shop, or, later, computer. They never made me change it, and often even came back to apologize for challenging or not understanding.

All that to say: I love it. I admire it. Simple, practical, efficient, and effective. I could have made a hundred attempts at a kilt and not come up with anything this workable. All told, elegant in its (deceptive) simplicity.

[KenB]

Thanks for the post and I await your followup missives.