Enlarged Sett

[Calgacus]

The rough calculation that I indicated in the post makes lots of assumptions about the size of the person, so, if you were a smaller person than the rough estimate, you could get more than 22 pleats in the same amount of tartan (because you'd use less in the apron and underapron). If you were a bigger person, it would make sense to order more tartan.

Although it's impossible to generalize about the "pleatability" of 10" sett, there are a few things that can be said. If it literally is impossible to get more than 1 pleat per sett, you simply have to settle for a smaller number of pleats or pleat to alternating stripes, both of which are fine alternatives. If a tartan element occurs more than once per sett, a kiltmaker can get more pleats into the kilt than the rough estimate, even pleating to the sett. If you are going to design your own tartan, and you want to make the sett big, you should have a kiltmaker evaluate the possibilities for pleating before you set your design in stone. I did that with a person last year who wanted a 17" sett with no repeating elements. He wanted it pleated to alternating stripes and was willing to accept that there was no other way to pleat the tartan.

And there's nothing wrong with 21 or 22 pleats - the swish comes from the amount of tartan in the back of the kilt, not from the number of pleats per se. 22 deeper pleats will swish just as well as 27 shallower pleats in a smaller sett.

Thank you for the excellent information, Barb.

So, a further couple of questions...

1) Thinking 'Kyle' here, what is the biggest sett that you can work with, assuming no repeating elements, and assuming no alternating pleats? (In other words, one sett per pleat, pleated to the stripe, the stripe on every pleat.) I assume that eventually you get to a point where you have pleats so deep it starts to affect the construction of the kilt, or the pleats are so few that it looks bad, or am I wrong?

2) Thinking 'me' here, just to clarify, am I correct in my assumption that putting a bit more material in the back of the kilt, either as deeper pleats of a larger sett, or more pleats of a smaller sett, will give better swish? I'm thinking here of compensation for Dalgleish's cloth being only 15oz.

This is fun!