Saltire kilt's tartan??

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Jeff,

Steve explained it pretty well. The "saltire" design itself is not a part of the tartan. When the cloth is woven there are extra bands of white woven in at different positions along the sett of the tartan, in such as way as that when the kilt is pleated, the saltire design appears. These white bands are not included in the portion of the cloth that goes into the making of the kilt.

In other words the cloth is woven specifically with making this kind of kilt in mind. You would not be able to take the same cloth and make drapes, or a dinner jacket, or anything else from it, because you'd have all these random looking white bars all across the tartan.

Only they are not random. They are specifically woven in positions so that when you pleat it to make a kilt the saltire design is created.

[ForresterModern]

Jeff,

Steve explained it pretty well. The "saltire" design itself is not a part of the tartan. When the cloth is woven there are extra bands of white woven in at different positions along the sett of the tartan, in such as way as that when the kilt is pleated, the saltire design appears. These white bands are not included in the portion of the cloth that goes into the making of the kilt.

In other words the cloth is woven specifically with making this kind of kilt in mind. You would not be able to take the same cloth and make drapes, or a dinner jacket, or anything else from it, because you'd have all these random looking white bars all across the tartan.

Only they are not random. They are specifically woven in positions so that when you pleat it to make a kilt the saltire design is created.

Matt

I am not trying to be argumentative, as I think we are all saying the same thing, that the pleated portion of the kilt is a specially woven piece of fabric with the bars placed so that when pleated to that stripe the saltire is formed on the back of the kilt. My difference is that Steve attributes it to STA ITI#6152, the "Saltire" sett tartan which was specifically designed to be able to accomplish something similar when the kilt is pleated "just so", which I believe it could accomplish. I just do not believe that what we are seeing here in the demo'd kilts is attributable to simply pleating a section of that "Saltire" tartan, especially since none of the pictures of the aprons for these kilts match the tartan pattern picture I posted in post #4 of STA ITI#6152 taken directly from the STA website and again below. #6152 clearly has paired lighter stripes making both small and large boxes and rectangles in the tartan pattern, while the tartan shown in the aprons of these photo's kilts have a single white stripe making only one size squares. So IMHO these kilts are not made from STA ITI#6152, despite it having been designed to do something similar to what these specially made kilts are doing in forming a saltire on the pleats. I would actually like to see the #6152 pleated to do the same thing and put them side by side with one of the pictured kilts to see the differences, which I think would then be obvious. But despite my search I have not found any 6152 kilt pictures on the web as yet.

STA ITI #6152 from Scotweb's tartan finder:


Photo of apron from one of the sites selling the "Saltire" kilts:


Clearly a different tartan IMHO, and that is why I said I agreed with both you and Steve EXCEPT for the fact that these kilts as shown and being sold are NOT being made out of the 6152 "Saltire" tartan, but rather a specific pattern of fabric designed and woven to make this specific pattern when pleated to that specific stripe. I would still like to see a "saltire" kilt made from the 6152 tartan to see how it would compare, as I think it might be more attractive personally, although it would not likely show the saltire pattern to the same obvious degree of detail, and certainly would not have the angled ends to the white segments making up the saltire as these kilts have.

Respectfully

jeff