5 Yard Knife-Pleated Kilt in Braveheart Warrior (Marton Mills Jura)

**TheBrus** · 7th March 13, 04:01 PM

I just pulled the trigger on a 5 yard wool kilt, and the kiltmaker insisted that it would be best to pleat this to the sett. I know that an 8 yard kilt in this tartan would look stunning pleated that way. But I was wondering if, because of the lower yardage, it would be necessary to pleat to the line. I've read Barbara Tewksbury's book, and I understand how kilts are made. My own judgement says to pleat to the line. Is there enough cloth to pleat to the sett? Can anyone help me with a mathematical model?

JDB

**Paul Henry** · 7th March 13, 04:20 PM

Braveheart Warrior Marton Mills

It's always diffcult to say exactly how the pleating will will work, but a key factor is knowing the woven sett size and of course your hip measurements. I've worked with all sorts of tartans and it is usually possible to make them do whatever you want.If you are going for a lower yardage the pleats are likely to be a little wider and a little shallower as well , but it should be possible.
I often sit down withpaper and work out what I need but often when I get the fabric on the table and discuss it with the client, sometimes there is a change of mind!

**Paul Henry** · 7th March 13, 04:30 PM

I've jsut checked with my sample book and the sett is about 7 3/8" , a nice size for most kilts, but for a smaller yardage kilt not so helpful! The red stripe is about 1 3/8" as well so that might help to get a sense of the scale.

**brewerpaul** · 7th March 13, 04:43 PM

One way to approach this, and likely what I would do, is to just pin it up both ways. Figure your pleat to stripe and see how you pleats look and how deep your pleats end up. Be sure to shoot some photos for yourself to refer back to. Next undo all your pinning then repin it to sett. Again you will be able to lay it out, figure your pleat size and see how deep your pleats will be. This all may take time but will be worth it in the long run. You will also get a good idea of what the pleat to stripe will look like, you may change your mind as to what stripe you want to pleat to. Best of luck in this project.

**Spartan Tartan** · 7th March 13, 06:29 PM

I agree that you should see it pinned up several ways and see which you like best. However, in the end it is YOUR kilt and should be pleated in the manner YOU want.

**Barb T** · 7th March 13, 06:41 PM

Well, all other things being equal, you get more pleats (and narrower ones) by pleating to the stripe than to the sett. But whether it makes more sense to pleat to the stripe or the sett depends on the tartan. How big a chunk of the sett would be in each pleat? Does that chunk look good repeated across the back of the kilt? How much taper do the pleats need for the measurements of the person? If you pleated to the stripe, would you lose a prominent edge stripe in the taper of every pleat (which doesn't look good)? Your measurements (which would be necessary to figure out the # of pleats and the size of the pleats), plus the size of the specific elements of the sett, are necessary to answer this question. It's best done with the tartan in hand. If you have hired an experienced kiltmaker who is willing to consider a variety of options, you can trust his/her judgment. But that shouldn't prevent you from asking to see what a variety of options would be like pleated to the stripe.

I'm working on a kilt for someone right now who was quite certain he wanted it pleated to the stripe. With the size of the elements and his measurements, though, I didn't think pleating to the stripe would look good. But I did pin it up and take a pic with my iPad and send it to him for him to make the decision rather than deciding for him.

**TheBrus** · 7th March 13, 07:18 PM

Excellent advice, all. Ideally, I would like to see several pleating options... I'm afraid that might not be possible. I'm working with a kiltmaker in Kansas City (Lenexa), Kansas... if that helps narrow things down. I've liked the group's work in the past, but then there was more fabric to work with.

I'll contact them and suggest they take photos of pinned pleats, and keep you all posted.

JDB

**Barb T** · 8th March 13, 05:48 AM

I think this really depends on whether you are dealing directly with a kiltmaker or with a "middle man". If you are dealing directly with the kiltmaker, you should be able to ask to see options. Takes maybe 5 minutes to pin up a few options, and a photo with an iPhone is all it takes. But, if you've ordered from a company that then contracts with a kiltmaker, that's not likely to be possible.

**OC Richard** · 8th March 13, 07:01 AM

That's what the kiltmaker did for me, when I was ordering my Isle of Skye. He sent me photos of a sample section pinned in various ways:

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...pleated-62121/

Barbara, am I correct in guessing that the potential issue with pleating to the white stripe is that it's not surrounded by sufficiently broad stripes? In other words, if the red bands on either side of the white stripe didn't have those narrow dark lines in them there would be room for the pleats to "breathe" so to speak, to taper and maintain a solid area on either side of the white stripe?

One solution would be to pleat it to the wide empty black area. Another would be using the brilliant blue stripe surrounded by black. Neither would be as satisfying (in the Gordon Highlanders/Seaforth Highlanders way) as pleating to that white stripe, possibly. I did something like that on my Isle of Skye: the obvious stripe to choose would have been the light grey one, but instead I chose the pairs of brown lines.

**Barb T** · 8th March 13, 08:21 AM

I scaled up the thumbnail, used paulhenry's sett size of 7 3/8", and measured the distance between the outside edges of the black stripes. It's about 5/8". If you were having an 8-yard knife pleated kilt made, it would be tough to pleat it well to the white stripe because the pleats are likely to be about 3/4-7/8" at the hips, which only leaves only 1/16-1/8 of an inch of red on the edges of the pleats, and the red would likely be nearly or entirely lost in the taper toward to waist. On the other hand, a 5-yard kilt will have wider pleats (because there's less tartan), and there would be adequate red in each pleat if the pleats were wider. The pleats couldn't be more than 1 3/8" in size, or they would go (unattractively) beyond the red, but there should be enough tartan in a 5-yard kilt to have enough pleats to prevent that. So, I'm not clear on why a 5-yard kilt has to be pleated to the sett.