X Marks Tartan order update

[Alan H]

Everyone should note that the new sett size changes your options. I'd guess, in fact I'm pretty sure that with a sett of six inches or so instead of nine, it would be possible to make a four-yard, knife pleated kilt for someone with a 40-inch waist. By my calculations, with the larger, previous sett, even with a 1.5 inch revealed pleat area, you needed 7 yards of material.

So our options just expanded. Check with your kiltmaker to be sure.

[The Wizard of BC]

A clarification Alan.

The large sett of 9 inches was a rough estimate of the #3 Tartan done way back when we were still in the planning and voting stage.

I don't think we ever calculated for the sett of the #1 or #2 tartans.

The differance here is not due to design, but due to yarn thickness. The Merino wool that Fraser & Kirkbright uses is a much finer wool than say Locharran.

This resulted in a significantly smaller sett than is usual for Kilts. (under 4")

This adjustment of thread count needed to be done to bring the sett back up to a usable size of 6-6 1/2".

[Alan H]

Hmmmm. you might be right. I was using the 9-inch figure all along as a guide for planning my own kilt, but that might not have been accurate. Whatever the case a 6 inch sett is just fine with me, in fact I like it better than the larger sett size, though I know that some kilts are made with setts that big.

I totted up the numbers once, for making a knife pleated kilt, pleated to sett, with either a 1 inch or a 1.5 inch reveal of the pleat using material that had a 9 inch sett,and the minimum yardage that I figured I needed to pull it off was about 7 yards. That's because the size of the sett required really deep pleats and those swallow up material, fast!

With a six inch sett, each pleat is significantly smaller (though still pretty deep) and the amount of material needed is less.

Here's my thinking.....

I have a 40 inch waist and 44 inch hips. To go 'round me butt, I would then need half of that 44 inches in pleats, right? The other half is the over, and under-apron. OK, so I need 22 inches worth of pleats.

Let's say that I have the kilt built so that there'sa one-inch reveal per pleat. That's a reasonable reveal for a traditional-looking knife-pleated kilt. That means there will be 22 pleats to go 'round my backside. Each of those pleats will be roughly the depth of the sett, minus one inch to account for the revealed part. (I think that's right). OK, so if the sett is nine inches, that means each pleat is eight inches.

OK, so let's figure out how many yards of material we need for each sett size.

22 pleats x 8 inches/pleat = 176 inches. That's almost 5 yards of material, right there. 4.9 yards in leats for the material with the nine-inch sett..

OK, now for the six inch sett...

22 pleats x 5 inches/pleat = 110 inches. That's three yards of material.

If the "kick" pleat and reverse pleat are the same size in both kilts, and the over and under-aprons are built the same way, they'll take the same amount of material. So there's a two-yard difference in these kilts for no reason other than the sett size is different. Of course, you can always pleat in extra deep pleats if you want a heavier kilt, but I personally wouldn't do that.

That's what I'm getting at. The smaller sett size may allow folks some options in terms of what they want to have built that we didn't have when we (maybe it was just me!) were assuming that the material would have a 9-inch sett.

Believe me, I have NO problem with the smaller sett size or any changes in thread count (which I never thought of before, anyway)!!!

[KMacT]

Alan,

I go at this from the opposite end of the calculations, more or less following Barb's book. For example, I start with the size of the cloth and work from there. Let's assume a 4' cloth. With a 6" sett and waist of 40" I get a total of 11 pleats at the back. Here is how I get to it.

Four yards of cloth equals 144" of cloth (it's easier to work in inches). If I understand correctly, Barb says to set aside 76" for the front of the kilt (inside and outside aprons and other stuff). This leaves 68" of cloth to go around the back where the pleats will be (total cloth length less length of cloth for the front).

In 68" of cloth one only gets 11.33 repeats of the pattern (68" divided by sett size). So pleated to the strip there can *only* be 11 pleats!

Since the waist size is 40", and the size of the waist at the back of the kilt will be half that (20"), and because the pleats go half way around the waist, then all the pleats will need to fit into those 20" of waist at the back. This gives a pleat size (revealed pleat) of 1.76" and a depth of pleat of 2.12, and a depth to width ratio of only "1.2:1".

Five yards of fabric? 17 pleats; 1.15" wide; 2.42" deep (ratio of 2.1:1)

Six yards? 23 pleats; 0.86" wide; 2.57" deep (ratio of 3:1)

While you could go with five yards of material, I think a more "traditional" look would require six yards (with a 6" sett and 40" waist). Note that this is for knife pleats and if you are getting Matt to make a box pleated kilt, then none of this really applies.

Make sense? Errors?

Kevin

[Alan H]

Makes sense!! LOL

Actually I think that both approaches make sense. they get to similar answers, but in fact that's not really the point I was getting at.

All I want to say is that if we/me/we were assuming that the sett is nine inches, and now it's going to be a lot closer to six inches, we should each review our options for our kilt(s) accordingly. I'm getting a box pleated kilt, so it's no worry. Others who may want knife pleated kilts should review their plans. There may be no change whatsoever, but it'd be a serious bummer if someone got a surprise late in the game...that's all.

[KMacT]

Alan,

I agree. The size of the sett can make a huge difference and must be taken into account. For example, I'm about to receive eight yards of tartan with a 15" sett. That's right, *fifteen* inches. Now that takes some creative kilt-making, I'll tell you (but Barb knew the trick and was happy to pass it on - it'll be pleated to the stripe and I'll be able to get 29 small pleats out of that for a very "traditional" knife-pleated kilt).

Kevin