The Art of Kiltmaking

[OC Richard]

Yes this book is a must-have for any kiltwatcher!

The section with all the photos showing well-made kilts and poorly-made kilts is an eye-opener. The next Highland Games I went to I spent a lot of time looking at the kilts around me with a much higher level of understanding. Wow there are a lot of badly made kilts out there! Mostly in pipe bands I will say.

One curious aspect of the book is that it discusses two methods of pleating the kilt, to the sett/tartan and to the line/stripe.

It mentions the "unfortunate lawnchair effect" when there is no strong verticle element present in the pleats.

However, amongst pipe bands, this very sort of pleating is very common, either pleating to an open area of the tartan which has no vertical element at all, or pleating to an area of the tartan which has a very weak vertical line. At distance, both look the same: the pleats show only horizonal lines.

I have heard this method of pleating called "pleating to the block".

Interesting that it's not mentioned in this book.

Here it is:

[fluter]

I have heard this method of pleating called "pleating to the block".

It's considered a special case of pleating to the stripe.

Sometimes it works---the Isle of Skye example is popular. Sometimes it may tip over over the line into the DLCE.

[MacMillans son]

I chose to have my Lochcarron Strome MacMillan Old Weathered pleated to the olive/brown block in order to tone down the fuschia a bit. It looks great, and achieved my objective! My kilt maker is Donna Willy of Pleasonton Ca., a friend and dedicated student of Ms. Stuemeyer, so I am sure she would not have created something that she felt was a kilting faux pas.

Although I have a photobucket account, I have not mastered getting photos from my computer onto it and then moved to Xmarks. I must commit to taking the time to figure it out!

I'll try to get that done today.

Brooke

[xman]

My copy just landed. I breezed past the first three chapters as mostly what I've discovered on my own and then hit Chapter 4. I'm so pleased with how richly informative this book is. My questions are being answered now on literally every page. I can't wait to digest it in more depth once my little man has gone to bed. I am very close now to my first tartan cloth purchase.

Thanks Barb & Elsie!

X

[MacMillans son]

I chose to have my Lochcarron Strome MacMillan Old Weathered pleated to the olive/brown block in order to tone down the fuschia a bit. It looks great, and achieved my objective! My kilt maker is Donna Willy of Pleasonton Ca., a friend and dedicated student of Ms. Stuemeyer, so I am sure she would not have created something that she felt was a kilting faux pas.

Although I have a photobucket account, I have not mastered getting photos from my computer onto it and then moved to Xmarks. I must commit to taking the time to figure it out!

I'll try to get that done today.

Brooke

Ok I think I got it!

Here is another example of "pleating to the block" (olive/brown)
I'll post to the photo forum when I get some with it on!





Brooke