Different looks pleating to the stripe

[Barb T]

Every once in awhile, I have the opportunity to post pictures of kilts in the same tartan but pleated differently. It's been awhile since I've done it, and I thought I'd do a quick post for anyone new.

When a kilt is pleated to the sett, it looks pretty much the same fore and aft. When it's pleated to the stripe, however, the back can look very different from the front, and that's part of the charm of pleating to the stripe. And different choices can have very different appearances. If you intend to pleat a kilt to the stripe, it's worth pinning up several alternatives and then standing back a ways to see what the overall effect is. Some choices are fabulous, and others are, shall we say, less than felicitous...

I've just finished a kilt for Panache in a piece of Heatherfield tartan that he got from the tartan designer, Rex Tremende. I also happened to make Rex's kilt, and, while they both wanted their kilts pleated to the stripe, they chose different stripes. I've posted the two versions below to show how different they look. Both are fabulous!





You'll also see one of those flukey things that people who make a lot of kilts sometimes luck into. In the first picture above, you'll see that the top band doesn't match the tartan across the top of the underapron. This is normal, because it would be pure luck that the top of the kilt in the pleats was an exact multiple of the sett. But in the second pic above, you'll see that it matches in both the apron _and_ the underapron! Pure luck! I think the last one I made where this happened was the kilt that I made for Matt several years ago. Fun that - he's one of the only people who would be likely to notice and appreciate it!