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

[Barb T]

I was taught that, if the stitches are more than a pencil point apart, it's too far. So every 3/16 or 1/4 isn't nearly close enough, and the stitch points will show as soon as there's a little tension on the pleats.

The only way to get the stitches close together without doing a stab stitch is to be able to flex the cloth. Here's a photo that illustrates what I mean by "flexing the cloth". You'll see that the needle is almost horizontal (not going vertically up and down through the fabric), and the cloth is flexed over my left index finger to allow the needle to accomplish this while at the same time going through all four thicknesses of 16 oz tartan in one motion. It also means that your index finger gets poked a lot until you develop a callus (and sometimes just below your fingernail on your left thumb.....ouch). You can also see why you only pin one pleat at a time. If you had more than one pleat pinned, you wouldn't be able to get your fingers over the edge of the pleat without having a huge bunch of material in the way. For those interested, the tartan is Ancient Duncan.



A hoop isn't a good idea. If you are stitching in a hoop, the only way to get stitches close together is to do a stab stitch (i.e, down and up in two separate motions), because, when the kilt is tight in a hoop, you can't flex the cloth.