Help! Is this a pleating-to-the-sett mistake in my new kilt?

[Stephan]

My new, five-yard, Mackintosh tartan kilt arrived today from Scotweb. I was very excited and pleased with it until I noticed that the sett in the pleats was very different from the sett in the apron. I've seen examples of the tartan pleated to sett in eight-yard kilts but not in five-yard kilts. In an eight-yard kilt, the pleated sett is exactly the same as the sett in the apron. In my new five-yard kilt, the inner colors of the normal sett (green) are inverted (for lack of a better term) and are on the outside - and the outer colors of the sett (navy blue) are now on the inside of the sett. I'm wondering if that is a big mistake or since it is a five-yard kilt with wider pleats, if that is what the kilt maker had to do because he or she was working with a larger-than-average sett? I've included a couple of photos. The first is a photo of my new, five-yard, pleated-to-the-sett Mackintosh kilt. The second photo is of two women wearing non-pleated, Mackintosh tartan skirts and the man between them is wearing an eight-yard, pleated-to-the-sett, Mackintosh tartan kilt.

Willie T,

I've just finished altering a "5 yarder" and it was pleated to the sett but as a rule there are limits to what a kilt maker can do when there is less yardage. More yardage means many more pleating options. Or, if the sett is just the 'right size'(5 inches, let's say), perhaps the kilt maker can do a pretty good job of reproducing it throughout the pleats. If it's(the sett) overly large, for instance, then the kilt maker will have to attempt to reproduce the sett as best as he/she can. So, those that made your kilt probably did the best that could be done based on the amount of material and whatever option was chosen to pleat to. Another option would have been to pleat the kilt to a stripe or colour block, elements that most likely reoccur more than once in a sett.