Pleated to sett or stripe?

[Tommy Hunt]

I can't figure it out. Seems to be neither. I love it either way though. What do you guys think?

[ChattanCat]

Have you tried pleating it to the white stripe or the red stripe? The white stripe is the dominate stripe but pleating to the red strip would change the pleated portion to red from the dominant green of the tartan.

[JRB]

Pleated to the double red stripe?

[Tommy Hunt]

Sorry I just meant which is this pleated to? What would you call it? Pleated to stripe or pleated to sett. I'm not sure. This is a kilt I purchased from Scotland a few weeks ago.

[ChattanCat]

Actually, the sett in the back is not usually the same as the apron. It has to do with the width of the pleats and what material is available for the pleats. The pleats in the back are dependent on the sett. It is normal to have the pleat depth variing depending on the sett, just to economize the material to an 8 yard kilt.

[Tommy Hunt]

Actually, the sett in the back is not usually the same as the apron. It has to do with the width of the pleats and what material is available for the pleats. The pleats in the back are dependent on the sett. It is normal to have the pleat depth variing depending on the sett, just to economize the material to an 8 yard kilt.

I didn't know that. So this would be called pleated to sett then I take it.

[The Wizard of BC]

It is actually pleated to the Stripe. If you look at each pleat there is a stripe down the center of each one.
It's interesting that they were able to almost imitate the Sett while pleating to the Stripe. Kinda cool concept.

If this were pleated to the Sett the ratio of the Sizes of the elements of the Tartan pattern should be the same front and back.
As ChattanCat says you can't always make it perfect but at least the ratios should be the same.
Also, if pleating to the Sett all of the elements of the Sett should still be present even if the overall Sett is squished or stretched a by 1 or 2%.


Pleating this way breaks some of the rules though. The prominent stripe used for the center of the outer apron should be centered in the back too.

I also think that the back looks sort of busy. That may only be the Tartan so I will have to look at and experiment with some other Tartans and see what a different Tartan would look like

[ChattanCat]

It is actually pleated to the Stripe. If you look at each pleat there is a stripe down the center of each one.
It's interesting that they were able to almost imitate the Sett while pleating to the Stripe. Kinda cool concept.

If this were pleated to the Sett the ratio of the Sizes of the elements of the Tartan pattern should be the same front and back.
As ChattanCat says you can't always make it perfect but at least the ratios should be the same.
Also, if pleating to the Sett all of the elements of the Sett should still be present even if the overall Sett is squished or stretched a by 1 or 2%.


Pleating this way breaks some of the rules though. The prominent stripe used for the center of the outer apron should be centered in the back too.

I also think that the back looks sort of busy. That may only be the Tartan so I will have to look at and experiment with some other Tartans and see what a different Tartan would look like

I would say it is pleated to the sett. Every element of the tartan is represented in the pleats. Pleating to the sett poses different challenges with each tartan. Some tartans require some imagination and planning to get all the elements represented in the tartan. I would say that the tartan was very easy to decide on the method of pleating. I just finished an Isle of Sky, pleated to the sett and it was more difficult to pleat.

[Barb T]

When a kilt is pleated to the stripe, every pleat is identical. So the kilt in the first post in this thread is definitely not pleated to the stripe, even though there is, in fact, a stripe down each pleat. The kilt below shows what pleating to the stripe is:



The kilt shown in the first post in this thread is not pleated to the sett, either, because the sett is not replicated in the back of the kilt. It's close, but you'll notice that the red stripes on the edges of the triple green blocks aren't present. The kiltmaker also didn't make any attempt to preserve the proportions of the tartan sett.

Having said this, you'll notice that the tartan sett is _huge_ - I'm guessing 12" based on the likely size of the apron. It's always a challenge to pleat a tartan with a huge sett, so sometimes a kiltmaker makes compromises when trying to pleat such a tartan. I don't know if the maker was a knowledgeable kiltmaker or not, so it's hard to say why he/she chose to do it this way.

Steve is right that the center back and front stripes should be the same.

[Riverkilt]

No reason that if a man finds a tartan he likes he can't have kilts made up in that tartan to the sett and to the various stripes...one of each is a good thing.

Ron