Who wears a Kingussie Pleated kilt?

[Ryan Ross]

Seeing yo at the STM booth in that Video, I now remember you from SMHG last year Ryan. I always thought you looked famliar.

Hah! Turpin, I randomly ran across a picture of you, somewhere (I can't remember where I saw it, at the moment), and recognized you also.

Small world, eh?

[Pleater]

That is a really neat kilt, despite the camera's determination to put you into pink.

I did find my original Kingussie pleated kilt - the weather is warm and I have been running a low fever for a couple of days, so it is just the thing as it is made up of some light fabric in tropical colours.

I have to say that it is easier to move in than the revers pleated versions.

The pleats open out and it can feel as though the kilt isn't even there.

I think the spell checker has caught all the reversals. I have slight dyslexia and when I am tired or not up to par I lose full coordination between my hands (or maybe sides of the brain) so I hit a letter with one hand before a letter which should have been before it hit by the other hand, or I use a letter in the same place but on the wrong side of the keyboard, a for h, for instance.

Spell check again - all KO

[greenguzzi]

Very interesting.

Now, let me see if I have this right. A Kingussie has a single "convex" box pleat in the centre of the rear, with knife pleats to the right and "mirror" knife pleats to the left. With an optional single concave box pleat on the left just before the apron, which I assume is so that the last pleat before the apron is the right way around. Did I get it right?

[Pleater]

Yes that is the basic method - though you can refine it a little for that extra bit of swankiness.

My kilts are all just about a perfect mirror image from the centre back to the edges.

I find the centre of the strip of cloth, and with some patterns I cut along that line or one close to it and then turn one half over and join the two pieces. Depending on the pattern I make the join the centre back or the inner fold to one side of the centre box pleat - different patterns call for different methods. If one side is to be a bit shorter I have that as the right side as the under apron can be left straight at the outer edge rather than shaped like the standard apron. I usually leave both aprons straight edged, particularly if the pattern matches and hides the edge.

This reversal trick means that the pattern lies the same way on the pleats - if you have three stripes black red grey black red grey, and want to have the grey showing with a red flash you need to turn half the fabric over so the stripes run grey red black grey red black.

Now, you start in the centre back and create the nicest box pleat, folding the fabric under each side to make, if possible, a complete three layers of fabric under the whole box. You then continue to make knife pleats pointing outwards from the box pleat for the required distance and in accordance with the pattern.

I then look at the aprons to see how to make them match the centre front with the centre back exactly ( I actually considered this provisionally earlier so as not to have to remake the pleats or cut off lots of fabric ) The edges of the aprons are shaped in 2 inches at the waist in a sort of side turned dart.

The material left over is folded under the apron to make a large pleat, which is not really optional unless you are only going to stand still in your kilt.

Sitting down, climbing steps - vaulting gates even, the under apron pleats are going to give you the required expansion to maintain your dignity.

I bring the last pleat of the small set to touch the edge of the apron - that is there is no reveal between them. However - if you are working on losing weight you might consider making a reveal there and then removing it when you have shrunk enough. Conversly, if an expanding waistline seems to be your fate, make the pleats meet and put in the reveal when the inevetable happens. You need to make the waistband longer than necessary and hide the excess at the ends, or just at the end of the under apron if the pattern will not match on the apron.

Its the details that make the difference between a plain kilt and a well crafted one.

[Ryan Ross]

Yep, that's just about it. This one has knife pleats going all the way to the edge of each apron, aswell as one (very deep)reversed knife pleat under each apron, to make for a good hang. I'd also like to note that, because this kilt contains a full 6 yards (which is pretty much unheard of for a kingussie), the central box pleat overlaps on the inside.

[greenguzzi]

Thanks for that, but there is another thing that I still don't understand. Why can't you go the full 8 yards without a large central pleat or a central pleat overlap? It's essentially the same as a knife pleated kilt. More yards just means deeper pleats. I would have thought that anything that works for knife pleats would work for Kingussie pleats.

[Ryan Ross]

Well, I took the kilt on a test run today, to see how it stands up to heavy wind. There has been a lot of tornadic activity in south Georgia, during the last couple of days, and we're even getting unusually high winds up here.

I've heard a couple of people say that kingussie pleated kilts tend to fly up more than any other. It was no problem at all today, and we were getting 30-35 mph bursts... the higher yardage has something to do with it staying put, I'd imagine.

[Tommie]

Ah thanks guys.So it is still considered a Kingussie even though the pleats are reverse.
Well thats a relief.
Would'nt want to go out wearing something and being told its backwards.

[Ryan Ross]

Ah thanks guys.So it is still considered a Kingussie even though the pleats are reverse.
Well thats a relief.
Would'nt want to go out wearing something and being told its backwards.

Aye, you'll be fine. Your kilt will be pleated the same way as all Utilikilts (and I think several other types of neo-kilt), and there are thousands upon thousands of those in the world! Based on what research I could do, and talking to several people, the true kingussie pleat is much more obscure than the reverse kingussie. I wouldn't be surprized if there were less than 50-100 in the world, honestly (but that's purely speculative)... I only concretely know of 8- One in the Highland Folk Museum in Kingussie, one in the Scottish Tartans Museum in Franklin NC, one belonging to Al Bullman, one belonging to Larry Long, one belonging to another member of this forum (Pleater), two others that Matt has made (he said one of them was in Canada and the other was in Australia?), and my own.

Really, I'd probably be more likely to be told that my kilt was made backwards than you would!

[Ryan Ross]

Just an update. I have the International Tartan Index number.

ITI#7637

The Ryan Ross tartan should be visible in the tartan ferret in about ten days, or so I hear.