box pleats compared to knife pleats, cloth usage

**benkilt** · 26th April 07, 05:39 PM

Someone's no doubt answered this already, but I am old and impatient so bear with me please. I recently made a couple of kilts, the first one using about four metres of cloth, the second one I increased the pleat size and put in five metres of cloth. Bearing this in mind, how much cloth do box pleats take up, compared with knife pleats?

**ccga3359** · 26th April 07, 05:57 PM

Box pleats take up less material than knife pleats.

**The Wizard of BC** · 26th April 07, 06:10 PM

A Traditional knife pleat kilt uses approx. 8 yds. of fabric
Matt Newsome advertises his box pleated kilts as having 4 yds. of fabric.

**Dreadbelly** · 26th April 07, 07:44 PM

In all fairness though a box pleat can easily be made with as little as 3 yards. Maybe even less for smaller folk.

Very economical, and you can always rip a box pleat completely apart to retailor if need be.

**M. A. C. Newsome** · 27th April 07, 04:14 AM

I always begin with at least 4 yards (single width) of cloth when I make a box pleated kilt, even for skinny folk. I may not always need every inch of it, but usually I come pretty close. With hip sizes over 46" I begin with 5 yards.

This amount is sufficient for a traditional "true" box pleated kilt, where there is little to no overlap inside the pleats. However, you can use more material than this if you like and simply have one side of the "box" with a deeper pleat, giving you an overlap. This is how modern military box pleats are made.

Aye,
Matt