Pleating a Johnstone kilt- which stripe?

[Calgacus]

Hi all,

Having just seen the thread about pleating a Holyrood kilt, and the possibility of getting a 'flash', what are folks' opinions regarding the best way to pleat a Weathered Johnstone kilt?

I was thinking pleating to the sett is possibly a bit boring or 'safe'. Pleating to the yellow line might be far too... well.. yellow, but then I saw the posts about having a 'flash' and wondered if that might work. My big concern is that I think in order to do that, the back of the kilt will look extremely dark when not flashing, due to the placement of the black stripes either side of the yellow.

Thoughts please, rabble?

[Domehead]

I presume you are knife pleating?

[Calgacus]

Yes, regular knife pleating.

[Riverkilt]

Is this what you mean?



Different tartan - the Antarctic - but pleated so the backside is dark but when the pleats open there's a flash of light. I had my kiltmaker copy Barb's pleating on this - love it. Of course the front is light.

[Andrew Breecher]

You may not be able to get the yellow "flash", but if you pleated to the light blue stripe the back wouldn't be too dark, and you might get a bit of the yellow peeking out as you move (but it won't be right inside the pleat).

[davidlpope]

Pleat to yellow.

[HarveyH]

If you think the Yellow stripe is too bold you could, perhaps, pleat to the half and half vertical to the right of the yellow stripe (where the brown and grey/blue meet). The yellow stripe would then "flash" without the kilt being too dark.

I know that some on here think the use of a half and half is not very traditional, but it would be interesting and it would also make any tapering of the pleats above the fell easier to do.

I have an Isle of Skye pleated to a black,purple half and half so that I get as much purple on the kilt as possible - see the small pic
.

[plaid preacher]

Personally, I am a big fan of pleating to the stripe, but that's just my thing.

One factor that hasn't been mentioned yet is the size of the sett of your tartan. My hunch is if the stripes are centered in the pleats, using either of the two stripes, the brown/blue field probably is too large to give a good "flash".

IF you are going to pleate to the stripe, it seems to me you have two options: a) the yellow stripe in the brown field, or b) the black stipes in the blue field. These will give two very different looks. On will give you a predominently brown back on your kilt, the other will give you a predominently blue back.

So what's your favourite colour? Brown or blue. I think either could be nice. Best of luck. Can't wait to see which one you choose.

[Calgacus]

Sorry for the delay in replying, I got called away by work for a couple of weeks.

I think I will go with the yellow stripe unless it really is too bright, in which event I will get it pinned in various configurations then probably post photos here for more advice!

Thanks all :-)

[hector]

A very right choice you made!