Military Box Pleats

[Michael A]

That is very interesting Steve - thank you.

[The Wizard of BC]

And yes Michael, if you cut away the pleats to thin the back of the kilt you must do the steeking. It hold the cut ends of the inside of the pleats and prevents them from sagging under their own weight. Steeking is the little secret in Traditional and Contemporary kiltmaking that keeps the pleats straight and parallel.

(oh, and I am using Contemporary in the way I coined it. A traditional kilt modified to take into account Durability, Fit, Fabric and Pockets.)

[Michael A]

Yes I understand why we do the steeking, but a trad box pleat is "steeked" (is "steek" a strong or week verb, as I usually only see it as the gerund?) a different way to a knife pleat. But given the deliberate overlap of the wrong side of the pleats for a military box pleat, it would be sensible to do it the same way as knife pleats, I think.

[Barb T]

The way I learned box pleating from Matt Newsome, the steeking is done without cutting out the pleats - no need to because there isn't the bulk of a trad knife pleated kilt. So, the steeking doesn't do the same thing in a box pleated kilt because there are no cut-out pleats to keep from sagging. The main thing that the steeking in a box pleated kilt does it to provide strain relief across the stitching at the bottom of the fell. in the pics below, the pleat stitching is behind the long horizontal threads, so any horizontal stress at that point is partly supported by the floating thread and not entirely by the pleat stitching.

[Michael A]

Yes I do that too for traditional box pleats, as per Matt's and your book.



But I was asking about military box pleats, with significant overlap, so it would be probably like knife pleat steeking.

[Barb T]

Yes, sorry. I thought Steve answered that question. I would do the steeking the same as a knife pleated kilt. I was just clarifying for others who read these posts what the purpose of the steeking in a box pleated kilt is.

[Michael A]

Oh sorry. All good.