Military Box Pleats

[Michael A]

Michael

PM me, and we can talk.

Thanks Barb. I sent an email.

Cheers

Michael

[Barb T]

I agree - I would sew it like a box pleated kilt, as you suggest, just with smaller pleats. I'm sure other people do it differently, but that would be my go-to solution. As you know from having made box pleated kilts before, you have to sew right in the very edge of the fold or you can't open up the pleat to fold both ways on either side of the stitching.

Personally, I wouldn't baste the length of each pleat - there's no reason that I can think of that would make this necessary, and you wind up with thread marks down every pleat when you press. I've made what amounts to a military box pleated kilt with 1 1/4" pleats (like the one in the third image below). The customer wanted narrow box pleats, but the sett was big enough that there was a significant underfold. I just stitched and basted as I would for any trad box pleated kilt. If the pleats were narrower, I think it would help to have an extra line of basting. I'll try to dig up a photo of the kilt - I think I took one before sending it off.



What weight tartan are you using? If you're using regimental weight, here's another basting technique you could use. I watched Elsie do this once with 18 oz tartan - she just started at the bottom and did a running stitch with one stitch in each pleat and pulled the pleats together like pearls on a string until each pleat butted up against the next. It worked because regimental weight is so stiff. I doubt it would work with medium weight fabric, but it could work, I suppose, with 16 oz if the pleats were narrow enough. I've never tried it.

[Barb T]

Found the pics!! Tartan is the Glenbuchat (and yes, these are the actual colors).

[Michael A]

That's a characteristically excellent and informative reply - thank you.

So on the back of this kilt and other "military" box pleats, may I presume they cut the pleats in the fell and do the steeking as for a knife pleat, rather than the traditional box pleat steeking?

[Steve Ashton]

A Royal Regiment of Scotland, Black Watch Tartan kilt with military box pleats.

On this kilt the fold within the pleat is the full depth.

[Michael A]

A Royal Regiment of Scotland, Black Watch Tartan kilt with military box pleats.

On this kilt the fold within the pleat is the full depth.

Hi Steve,

Do you do the steeking on this as for a knife pleat?

[Barb T]

So on the back of this kilt and other "military" box pleats, may I presume they cut the pleats in the fell and do the steeking as for a knife pleat, rather than the traditional box pleat steeking?

I honestly don't know - I've never taken apart a military box pleated kilt, but it seems like you'd pretty much have to cut out the pleats, or you'd have even more bulk in the fell than in a regular kilt.

Steve - what do the military box pleated kilts that you've taken apart look like inside under the lining?

[The Wizard of BC]

I have had an opportunity to see inside 2 older military kilts and 2 of the newer RRS kilts. All four were pleated to Military box pleat or un-even leg box pleats. One was originally pleated this way but someone had re-pressed the pleats to knife pleats,

Actually I was surprised. In the older kilts there was no interfacing at all. There was a stabilizer but it was just a strip of linen lightly tacked in place. The reason I had to open both of these kilts was that they had been altered by someone who did not know or understand that buckles have to be sewn through the outer fabric and into the stabilizer. Both of the old kilts had suffered failures of the Fell stitching due to the buckles sewn back on, after alteration, to the outer fabric only. Both also had very serious deformation of the aprons due to the lack of any re-reinforcement at all.

The Pleats were cut away. There was Steeking but not in the way we think of it today. It was very loosely sewn in. Almost tacking. All of the internal stitching on these kilts that I have seen has been with coarse cotton thread. Almost a yarn. Most was rotten.

The RRS kilts I opened had to be altered for size. The customer presented me with two kilts and asked me to use fabric from one to increase the size of the other.
To my surprise I found that one kilt is almost completely machine sewn. On one kilt the Fell stitching is done with a technique called blind machine stitching. The pleat is sewn in place open and then folded back to hide the line of stitching. Each pleat was then cut away before sewing the next. The other kilt had traditional hand stitched pleats but machine stitching almost everywhere else. . They had different contract numbers and I do not know the years of make.
The interfacing and stabilizer of the new RRS kilts are cut from the same fabric. A coarse plain weave about like burlap bags. I suspect it was linen.

There is no one that can claim that these kilts were not full traditional kilts. But I'm afraid I did not view the construction very highly.

[Michael A]

That is very interesting Steve - thank you.