Black Watch pleated to the strip but which strip?

[Patty Logan]

OK, I noticed that no one else has brought up that the image in the original post is not of the Black Watch (42nd) Tartan and this may be what is causing the confusion.

The Tartan that is named and sold as "Back Watch" is listed with the Scottish Register of Tartan as #5128 and the Scottish Tartans Authority as #207, is this -



Notice please that in each green band there is a single black stripe -
But
The black stripes in the blue bands alternate between two black stripes centered
And four black stripes, two on each side.

So one repeat on the Tartan pattern is not from one green band with a black line to the next green with black -

But

From one blue with two black centered - all the way across to the next blue with two centered.

This creates a large Sett. (On my own personal 16oz kilt the Sett is 12.5")

If you pleat this Tartan to the blue band with two black centered - each pleat uses up 12.5" of fabric and the pleat depth of 1" reveal pleats will be 5.75" deep.

The green with black stripe is repeated twice in each Sett so this is why many kilts are pleated to this stripe.

Each 1" pleat uses 6.25" of fabric and the pleat depth is 2.625".

In the Arnot example above, the kilt is pleated to each blue band so the stripe within the blue pleats alternate.

I hope this helps answer the original question and clears up some confusion.

Thanks steve, this does answers my question and even answers questions I didn't know I even had!