Sett vs. Stripe

[Captain]

I've never been a fan of pleating to the stripe... I agree that it looks too busy, but that's just me. I love pleating to the sett... The fact that the garment is pleated, but still displays the full pattern across them looks amazing, I think.

[cloves]

fantastic Barb! Your work, as always, is superb.
Could that tartan be pleated to a different vertical stripe? Or would it always be the white? Perhaps pleated to the vertical blue or black lines?

I remember seeing a post that showed xmarks tartan pleated more than one way. Is the dominant stripe the usual one you pleat to? Or is it simply a matter of personal taste?

[Barb T]

Lots of questions to answer!

Pictures in the new book: yes, I'm going to include these pictures in the new book. In fact, that's why I had Dave take them before I shipped the kilts off yesterday!

Preference for one over the other: pleating to the sett or the stripe is really a personal preference thing. Some people think pleating to the stripe looks too busy, and some people think pleating to the sett is too bland. I don't take offense if people don't like one over the other!

Size of sett: The MacCallum repeat is about 7.5". "Sett" is defined as the proportion and sequence of colors that make up one repeat of the tartan. So, "repeat" and "sett size" are more or less synonymous. "Sett" by itself means the order and proportions of colors in one repeat but NOT size. The sett for the Red Wallace could be described as BK2, R16, BK16, Y2, BK16, R16 (BK = black, R=red, Y=yellow). "2" could be 2 threads, 2", or 2'.

Choosing the stripe to pleat to: I had initially thought that the MacCallum wouldn't pleat well to the stripe because the light blue stripe (it's not actually white) has black on one side and dark green on the other. I did a test pinning, though, and it looked good. I think the only way to really tell is to do a test pinning. I think also that it works in this case because the dark green and black aren't wildly different in color value from one another.

Could you pleat the MacCallum to a different stripe? Sure. If you chose to pleat it like I did the Isle of Skye (i.e., to one of the solid wide dark-colored stripes), the kilt would be dominated in the back by horizontal stripes. I think this works in the Isle of Skye because there aren't any really prominent stripes in the tartan. Everything is kind of muted. If you did this with the MacCallum, though, you'd have very prominent horizontal light blue stripes every couple of inches across the back of the kilt. You may or may not like that, once it's made up into a kilt. Again, I think it's worth pinning something up and seeing if you like it or not. If you don't do a test of quite a few pleats, it's very easy to focus on what each pleat will look like and fail to step back and see the overall effect. Here's a kilt pleated to a very narrow stripe (one that, from a distance, is nearly invisible). I like it for this kilt, but some might not. You can see, though, how prominent the horizontal color stripes are.



Cheers,

Barb