Number vs. size of pleats

[Barb T]

Hi, Barb,

Thanks for answering! This kilt is for me, with a 38 inch waist and 42 inch hips. Here are the calculations that I'd made. If anything isn't right (or is right but... odd.) please let me know. I'd welcome suggestions.

inches apron pleats
waist 38 20 18
hips 42 21 21

fell 7 1/4"

I'm a short, stocky guy.

The original tartan was 4 metres of double-width, giving me a bit less than 8 metres to work with. The sett is right at 6 1/2". It's 16 oz. wool from ScotWeb.

What it boils down to, at this point, is that I believe I'm going to make a mistake if I jump up and down on this poor kilt and try to jam every inch of that tartan into it. Assuming I go to a 1" reveal at the hips (with the current split), that would mean getting rid of 12 pleats, or about 1 yard of material. Since I'm working with two tartan halves at this point, I'd assume that I'd want to take 6 setts off of the end of the left half of the tartan, and 6 setts off of the beginning half of the right tartan. Does that sound right?

And, for those that know better and have done the math before, do the splits look right?

Thanks again for the comments, everyone!

Brian

The only miscalculation I see is that getting rid of 12 pleats x 6.5" set is actually over _2_yards less material. I think I'd compromise and aim for something between 3/4" and 1" in the reveal at the hip. For someone your size, 7/8" at the hips will be fine, and the pleats will still be reasonable at the waist.

Your splits are fine.

The join doesn't have to be in the middle of the back of the kilt. Just mark as many pleats as you can on the first half, even though the mid-back pleat won't be the last one you mark. Then mark the rest of the ones you need on the other half, mark the underapron, and then _don't cut the extra off until you're done pleating_. That way, if you make a mistake, you aren't in trouble. And you also wind up with a single larger piece at the end.

And, as a general comment, I do think that pleat size at the waist matters. You definitely don't want pleats less than 1/2" at the waist in any kilt, and, for a guy, I think that's the absolute lower limit and that pleats 1/2" at the waist really look to small on a guy.