pleating to the sett & the elements of the sett - Do I have this right?

[Barb T]

There's no black in this tartan, actually. The dark color is green, and I've marked out above what I referred to as the "green undercheck". It would be a symmetrical block if the stripe on each side of the khaki (beige) were the same color, but it's not.

The pleats in the kilt in the photo are slightly more than 1" in width at the hips. So, if you could get 35 pleats out of using a single sett per pleat, you're likely to get only 17 if you double the sett. For hips of 45", you'll probably split the hips evenly (22.5" fore and aft), making the pleats a bit more than 1 1/4" across at the hips. I think for a man of your size that it would be OK and preferable to 35 narrow pleats. But it points up the problem with a sett that's small - it's too small for a normal # of pleats but not so small that you get a normal number of pleats by doubling the sett. That's why most commercial kilting tartan is woven with setts between 6 and 8". I have no idea why they wove it so small in 16 oz tartan.

If you decide to compensate at the top for putting in a narrow hem at the bottom, use only a 1 1/2" rise when you lay out the kilt. You can make the top band wider, if you want, to compensate. Better that than having the tartan reverse at the center back.

Oh - and just an aside! I actually didn't take a photo for either the images above. I just plunked the kilt on a scanner. Handy trick to know about if you have a scanner.