How an Engineer lays out pleats

[unixken]

Steve, tricks like this are used all the time in lots of industries. Years ago I was an advertising design and layout artist. Here's a simple example of one such trick I would use.

Your task - divide an 8-inch wide area into 9 equal columns. You can sit there and do the math to determine how many fractions of an inch each column needs to be... or you can lay your ruler across the 8-inch area, at an angle! Position the ruler such that the "0" (zero) mark on the ruler falls along the left edge of the area you are dividing, and change the angle of the ruler until the mark for 9 inches falls on the right-side boundary of the area you are dividing. Place a tick mark at each inch mark along the angled ruler. Then, using your t-square and triangle, draw a vertical line up through each tick mark. Viola! 9 equal columns without doing any math.

[unixken]

Using this long strip will tell you how many pleats there will be in the kilt and give you the pleat layout for the entire length of fabric. Apron to apron, you now know the layout for every pleat.

That alone, is GOLD, Steve.

[MacGumerait]

And to answer the question about the Roman Numerals --- I think they look cool.
They are easier to make when marking your fabric with chalk.

And they make a cool conversation piece with your customers. "That's how we did it way back then."

Rome wasn't built in a day , but that's only because you weren't the foreman back then .

[Barb T]

Steve said:

A general rule is that you do not want an element of the Tartan pattern right on the edge of a pleat.

Actually, this isn't true. There are many pleating situations where the best option is to hold a stripe along the edge of a pleat and accommodate the taper entirely on the other side. In the kilt below, the majority of the pleats are done this way in order to preserve the prominent stripes. It's a rare kilt that I lay out that is pleated to the sett and doesn't have at least a few pleats done this way. It's one of the reasons that I don't use a mathematical method for laying out pleats. The arrows below show the stripe that is held along the edge of each pleat.



and a view so that you can see the overall pleating. I'll admit that this kilt is a bit unusual in having so many pleats done this way, but it was absolutely necessary because of how "stripey" the Scott is.