huge sett size

[OC Richard]

Sett size is an interesting thing. Army kilts had (from what I've seen, Peter would know) small sett sizes in the early 19th century but by the end of the century the sett sizes had got quite large. I think my MOD Royal Stewart kilt has around a 9" sett.

Seems to me that in The Highlanders Of Scotland sett size varies more than it usually does nowadays, with heavy kilt weight fabric. (I'm talking ordinary tartans, not the rare exceptions with gigantic setts.)

Personally I prefer a man's kilt to have a nice large sett.

[Tartan Tess]

Yes unixken. It was the Aberdeen District tartan. My friend Patti Smith did a beautiful job with it.

[davidlpope]

Here's my large sett custom-weave. Sett size is ~12.5 inches. Matt Newsome both sourced the tartan from Dalgleish and sewed up a wonderful 6-yd, knife-pleat kilt. As usual, his work is heirloom quality!

[OC Richard]

My Isle of Skye 16oz has a 7 1/2" sett and I myself wouldn't want to go smaller than that for my own kilts.

That looks great David! I do love seeing large setts.

For me, getting the sett size "right" is how it appears on the front apron.

I'm looking into getting the original West Virginia tartan woven. The trouble is, it's two somewhat similar-looking motifs which alternate, so in effect the sett size should be doubled.

Here's what I mean; here's the tartan



I wouldn't want that many repeats on the front apron, not for a man's kilt.

Seems to me that what looks good is to have three, or four, repetitions of the main theme. Since the WV has alternating themes four is out, so we're at three.

The front panel would look more or less like this (sorry I don't know how to do a trapezoidal crop)



or this