Deep pleats

**Bad Monkey** · 22nd April 19, 06:00 PM

Originally Posted by The Wizard of BC

...Another Tartan that is similar is the one used by the reenacting group, the 78th Fraser Highlanders. Their fabric has a Sett that is even larger than Black Watch.

As they prefer their kilts pleated to Sett we cut away the excess fabric in the massivly deep pleats to keep the total amount of fabric manageable. But this does result in huge amounts of waste.

;

OK I'm curious about this one. For some reason I can't shake the image of a kiltmaker stitching up the extra fabric and trimming off a bunch of fabric from the inside of each pleat. Somewhat like when a double width piece is ripped down the warp then brought together center back but on each and every pleat reducing the pleat depth from 6-7 inches to something more common...

**The Wizard of BC** · 22nd April 19, 06:14 PM

Actually we calculate the pleat layout beforehand. This shows us where any super deep pleats will occur. We can then cut away the excess and do the same exact type of fabric joins that we would normally do.

All of this is done prior to stitching the pleats.

Instead of one invisible fabric join hidden in the pleats, there may be 5-7 joines. But when the kilt is complete no one can tell.

But this does result in a bin full of scraps. Luckily the 78th have quite a few small uniform accessories like epaulets and cap flashes, that can use up some of the scraps.

This would probably not be practical, in terms of the cost of the wasted fabric, for a one off job

**Bad Monkey** · 22nd April 19, 07:02 PM

wow
It makes sense, I just had never thought that there would be times a kiltmaker needed to 'lop off' a number of extra deep pleats.
Thanks for taking the time to walk it through.