Pleating to Horizontal ?!

**mookien** · 28th January 11, 04:26 PM

Barb T.: Thanks for your comments. They make sense and help me understand pleating a bit more, but I'm not about to get between Drs. Tewksbury and Fiddes in a kilt-making discussion. :-)

That's a beautiful Douglas kilt (the Clan of my family, by the way) and makes obvious what you write about "subdued color differences" and non-stripeyness. My brother has an Ancient Douglas and I'll be sure to point him to your post.

**RockyR** · 28th January 11, 05:10 PM

Steve (and others)... I coined that term when a customer insisted I make a kilt to the 'no stripe' about 6 years ago. I REALLY did not like how it came out. To my eye, it had the look of a 1970's metal lawn / beach chair with the wide plastic multi stripe bands. I said to Kelly "this kilt is what I call the 'lawn chair effect'". She heartily agreed and the name stuck (at least around our shop). Have others done it that way? Yes. Is it my personal favorite? No.

Originally Posted by Barb T.

I have no idea why the original item that you read said that it is a method not to be tackled by novice kiltmakers. It is actually THE EASIEST way to pleat a kilt. Because a pleat is all one color, the only precision you have to worry about is lining up the horizontal stripes. There's nothing at all to worry about in the pleat itself - no central element to keep centered, no edge stripe to keep on an edge. And layout is really easy.

I agree 100%. That was the EXACT SAME thought that ran through my head as I read that initial post. It's so easy to line up, it's almost cheating!

**The Wizard of BC** · 28th January 11, 05:49 PM

Um, Barb, Rocky,,,,,I don't mean to argue with you guys but should we not be trying to convince everyone how incredibly hard it would be to do a kilt to no stripe.

How hard? Well for starters there are no pre-printed lines to follow. We actually have to measure.

So I think we should all charge extra just because it is so hard. We could call it the "No Stripe Tax".

**Slowburn** · 28th January 11, 07:16 PM

Originally Posted by mookien

Someone please enlighten me. In Dr. Nicholas J. Fiddes' excellent e-book (for beginners like me) available on the Scotweb home page, he writes,

"A third even rarer method of pleating, ‘to horizontal’, involves choosing a point in the sett for the folds that creates the illusion of a series of strong horizontal bands across the rear. Only a true master of kiltmaking is likely to accomplish this successfully, so do not ask it of a novice. But anyway, it is arguably rare for a reason, as many find it less flattering or aesthetically pleasing."

I know about pleating to sett and stripe, but what exactly is being described here, and why do many find it less pleasing?

My kilt is pleated to a particular stripe and creates a horizontal-band pattern on the pleats. Why wouldn't it be described as pleated "to horizontal"? I see lots of kilts like it and they look good to me!

- Puzzled in Bamburgh

While being measured by Rocky I enquired about an unusual line set and he refered to the unflattering result as the lawn chair effect. That is to say the bars resembling having sat upon a strapped chair and being left with those horizontal stripes.

**Barb T** · 28th January 11, 07:44 PM

Originally Posted by The Wizard of BC

Um, Barb, Rocky,,,,,I don't mean to argue with you guys but should we not be trying to convince everyone how incredibly hard it would be to do a kilt to no stripe.

How hard? Well for starters there are no pre-printed lines to follow. We actually have to measure.

So I think we should all charge extra just because it is so hard. We could call it the "No Stripe Tax".

Hahahahaha...my bad. Of COURSE we should say that pleating to the no stripe is incredibly difficult. We could make a lot more money, couldn't we???

**madmacs** · 28th January 11, 08:22 PM

I dont recall seeing any kilts pleated this way when i was in scotland, generally to the sett was used for most kilts, and to the stripe for military and pipe bands.

From the pictures it looks as though you want similar background colours to avoid the lawn chair (rugby shirt) look.

Id be interested in seeing in a red tartan like royal stewart though.

**AKScott** · 28th January 11, 09:50 PM

Originally Posted by madmacs

Id be interested in seeing in a red tartan like royal stewart though.

How about clan Scott modern red?

EDIT: I though of four obvious ways to pleat this same piece of tartan. They are on page two in this thread:

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...d-plaid-63962/

**madmacs** · 28th January 11, 11:17 PM

Looks nice like that.

Liked the double white striped too

**OC Richard** · 1st February 11, 05:36 AM

Originally Posted by The Wizard of BC

What a great photo!

It's what I had to decide when I ordered my Isle of Skye kilt.

I went with the option on the far right, that is, pleated to the pairs of brown lines. I prefer it because it allows pure undiluted purple to appear on the back of the kilt. I'm delighted with my IOS kilt.

But yes it seems that pleating so that the pleats show no vertical elements is usually called "pleating to the block".

This term doesn't appear in The Art Of Kiltmaking however. The authors use the term "unfortunate lawnchair effect" to describe a kilt pleated to the stripe where the vertical element is too weak.

About pipe bands yes, I just watched the DVDs of the 2010 World Pipe Band Championships Grade One Final and all the bands save two were pleated to the line/stripe.

**Barb T** · 1st February 11, 02:22 PM

The reason that the teem "pleating to the block" doesn't appear in TAoK is that it's simply a variant of pleating the stripe.

WRT the pic in the previous post, the problem with pleating to the double brown stripe is that the two brown stripes are not quite the same width. This means that a pleat isn't bilaterally symmetrical. I think that pleating to the stripe looks best when pleats are bilaterally symmetrical.