Pleated Kilt

package Pleated KiltsThe original tailored kilt. Created from approximately four yards of cloth and field pleated.

The first type of the kilt was an untailored length of fabric that was simply collected into folds and belted at the waistline (start to see the History of the Kilt). Initial tailored kilts, with pleats sewn into location from waistline to hip, appeared towards the end regarding the eighteenth century. The oldest surviving tailored kilt is a regimental kilt from the Gordon Highlanders from 1796. It contains simply over three yards of cloth and was field pleated to stripe. Civilian kilts were initially pleated to no design whatsoever, but shortly (c.1815-1820) adopted the military fashion of pleating to stripe.

It was the epitome associated with the kilt as garments; made from more or less four yards of good heavy weight wool, box pleated on stripe. It absolutely was comfortable, financial, and ended up being the daily clothes associated with Highland Gaelic male. Its this style which our field pleated kilts tend to be modelled after.

The four-yard field pleated kilt sought out of style into the second 50 % of the nineteenth century. In the 1870s and 1880s it had been more common for box pleated kilts to-be created from five or six yards of cloth, but knife pleated kilts had been additionally getting popular. By the end for the nineteenth century, the box pleated kilt was just being used by particular few military regiments.

The original four-yard field pleated kilt ended up being revived in 1982 by kiltmaker and kilt historian Bob Martin. Residing South Carolina, Martin ended up being having difficulty persuading their consumers inside warm US southeast that heavy weight worsted wool had been an exceptional kilt fabric into light-weight stuff they were demanding to "beat the heat." Their friend, Scottish anthropologist and historian Dr. Michiel MacDonald, advised when individuals desired a lighter weight kilt without having to sacrifice the caliber of good heavy-weight worsted wool, they ought to return to the form of early package pleated kilt. Only using four yards, it contains but half the fabric of the modern kilt.

Bob Martin included the four yard box pleated kilt to their line, and taught additional kilt makers steps to make this overlooked design. I had become friends with Bob through Scottish Tartans Museum, and in 2004 he offered to instruct me how to make traditional package pleated kilts.

Initially I learned merely so that i really could make kilts for myself, but unearthed that we enjoyed making them such that I started supplying my solutions to other individuals. By 2012 i've made over 500 kilts, the great majority of those in the traditional package pleated design.

Bob Martin features since retired from expert kiltmaking, and I also was today one of the few kiltmakers available today that gives this historic type of pleating. For an average sized man, four yards of fabric is enough for a conventional package pleated kilt. Following the type of the first package pleated kilts within their heyday, most field pleated kilts I make is going to be pleated into the stripe (as observed in the image above). This creates a much different impact than does pleating towards the stripe in today's eight yard kilt, due to the width for the conventional package pleats. Sometimes it will work out simpler to pleat the kilt to a new design, either alternative stipes, toward sett (as shown below), or a created structure; this is certainly generally speaking done only when the repeat associated with tartan is smaller or bigger than normal. I'm going to be pleased to resolve any questions you have about pleating whenever you order your kilt.