Twill Question...

[Blu (Ontario)]

After reading Barb T.'s book, I discovered that one of the Scottish made traditional wool kilts I bought several years ago had the fabric inside out. That is to say... the twill line runs from upper right to lower left.

The kilt was made by one of the large and well know weavers and kilt manufacturers in Scotland. Needless to say, I was a bit surprised. Both the fabric and the workmanship were quite good.. except that it was made inside out.

I'm having this kilt re-built so I'm not too concerned but I am curious.

Is there some structural significance to the direction of the twill line and the which side of the tartan faces out... or is it just an accepted standard that kiltmakers in general have decided to follow?

.

[Southern Breeze]

Interesting question, I've been researching handweaving tartan and that is something I never thought about. I'm interested in an answer myself.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Cloth *does* have a "good" side and a "bad" side. Sometimes when you get the cloth in from the mill there are slight pulls and knots on one side of the cloth. You want to make sure that that side goes on the inside of the kilt. The "good" side (or face) of the fabric will have the twill running from lower left to upper right, when the kilt is being worn.

But with modern fabric production techniques, I only rarely encounter visible flaws in the non-face side of the fabric. Sometimes it's so flawless that there really is no difference.

If I had a kilt made with the twill going the wrong way, so long as there were no visible flaws in the cloth, I don't think I'd give it a second thought. I'd probably be the only one to know the difference!
Matt

[Barb T]

Used to be that tartan came with the "face" or good side marked for the reasons that Matt mentioned. I've even gotten single-width tartan that has the kilting selvedge marked (although that's typically easier to distinguish!). As Matt said, now both faces are pretty much equally good. There's only one mill that I get tartan from that still marks the good side and consistently folds the good side in (as most nice single-sided cloth used to be sold in fabric stores), but even they only do it for custom weaves.

I agree with Matt. The traditional way of making a kilt is twill line right to left top to bottom, but it's something that no one's ever going to notice. And there's no structural reason for it. In terms of things to be unhappy about in a kilt, it's _way_ down at the bottom of the list!!

Barb

[Pleater]

[QUOTE=Blu (Ontario)]After reading Barb T.'s book, I discovered that one of the Scottish made traditional wool kilts I bought several years ago had the fabric inside out. That is to say... the twill line runs from upper right to lower left.

Er - I thought that was the correct way?

If it isn't, all my twill kilts are inside out.

[RockyR]

as you lay fabric on a table and have the selvedge edge away from you and the top of the kilt near you, the lines should go \\\\ this way \\\\

[Barb T]

Yup.

B

[way2fractious]

Earlier discussion on this:

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=14400

[Blu (Ontario)]

[QUOTE=RockyR]as you lay fabric on a table and have the selvedge edge away from you and the top of the kilt near you, the lines should go \\\\ this way \\\\[/QUOTE]

The twill lines on my kilt ran ////. I do agree with Barb T. as I didn't notice until recently... and I doubt that few people other than kiltmakers would ever notice or care.

... Sometimes when you get the cloth in from the mill there are slight pulls and knots on one side of the cloth.

Fortunately the cloth on this kilt does not have any significant flaws on the wrong side. I thought it was interesting that a large well know kiltmaker would let this sort of thing happen. :rolleyes:

.

[MacWage]

After reading this thread, I decided to look at Tartan web sites and noticed that they go BOTH ways. The Scottish Tartans Authority website actually shows most (at least every one I looked up like:////

Also, A pic I appropriated (stole) from a kiltmaker website to use as Wall paper has it: //// (looking at it beside my window NOW! (It's X Marks Tartan -I think and the maker is Canadian-> That's all I'll say)


If I am thinking right, the angle either viewed sevage down and cut/rip up or cut/rip down and sevage up should be the SAME (only changing at a 90 degree angle of flipping back to front).

I know Barb (in person and in book) has it going: \\\\\


Yet, I find it hard to call the Scottish Tartans Authority website wrong.
Is it, or does it really matter?