Centre of a kilt question

[sjrapid]

I own a Barb T - in XMTS tartan - where the centre of the apron is the middle of a square. My Gunn Modern (Alex Scott, Aberdeen) by comparison has the prominent red stripe as apron centre.

Here's the XMTS:



I think it's down to the kiltmaker and the tartan (size of sett, prominence of major lines). If you want a particular line to be apron centre, ask the kiltmaker to make it so for you.

best regards

[bjproc]

thanks steve, that was the kind of picture i was looking for, for the first post.

like i said, it will be tartan depandant

[Jeff_MacDonald]

I just asked this question of Matt as I'm having an Isle of Skye kilt made and wanted to know if I could have the wide brown stripe centered on the apron instead of the narrow grey stripe. Here's a couple of pics of the difference:

Brown stripe centered on apron


Grey stripe centered on apron


Matt's reply was that it depended on the *kilt*, more specifically how deep the first pleat would need to be for one option versus the other.

Most of the pics I have of IoS show the brown stripe centered.

BTW, Barb doesn't always put the more prominent stripe in the center of the apron:

[Barb T]

Hi guys! Time for me to weigh in, I guess!

Here's what I consider when I'm trying to decide what to choose as the center front. As many of you have said, it's typical to use a prominent stripe for the center front. Here are some circumstances where I wouldn't do that:

1) In sjrapid's XMarks kilt in the post above (and all the others I've pleated to the sett from XMarks tartan), I haven't centered the big white stripe. That's because the center back and center front need to match if you pleat to the sett, and I thought the kilt looked better if it didn't have a huge white cross centered on the person's butt.

2) In the IOS kilt above (the third one, which is the one I made), it's pleated to the "no stripe", as you guys say. Since the brown block is featured in the back of the kilt, I did the same in the front.

3) Sometimes there's just not enough tartan to give you any choice. If the tartan has a big sett, you might have to waste too big a piece to choose a particular prominent stripe. So sometimes the actual piece of tartan and where it's been cut governs the choice.

4) Sometimes choosing a particular center stripe means that the deep pleat (the one next to the apron) will have to be too shallow or too deep. The choices to solve the problem are either to put in a hidden pleat to take up the extra material or choose a different center front stripe. If I can avoid a hidden pleat in a 16 oz kilt, I usually try to do that. But sometimes it's unavoidable.

The only time it _really_ matters is if you're trying to match kilts, say for a wedding or for a band kilt. Then you need to check to see how the other kilts are pleated.

And last, if you make a trad kilt by the instructions in my book, the center stripe is not actually quite half way across the apron. The fringe edge has an extra inch to make sure that the apron edge covers the underapron. So, folding the apron in half won't give you the exact center of the apron. That's not a mistake - it's deliberate. But, you can eyeball the center. Whatever is in the approximate center of the apron should be centered down the front of your body and should have the sporran directly over it.

[Pleater]

As a totally untraditional kilt maker, I can only advise that you don't try to work to rules if it means that what you are making looks wrong.

I use any fabric I can get to cooperate in being a kilt, which is why I have a kilt with 50 little pleats - that was the only way to get it to look right.

I believe that if a tradtional kilt is pleated to the set then usually the centre front and back of the kilt should match - which could scupper the prominant centre front stripe if it would require more fabric than available to get that arangement.

The previous post showing the Isle of Skye tartan made up in different ways I think illustrates that a kilt can be made up in different ways and look equally well - there may well be tartans which do not adapt so readily to different centerings, or what looks right on a man of substance might not work on some skinny malinky, and vice versa.

Yet another reason for me staying well out of the making of kilts for other people.

[bjproc]

thanks Barb & Pleater for the great answers