One of the cloth finish options I am able to offer for my Heirloom quality kilts is "teasle raised."

For those not familiar, a teasle is a plant (related to the thistle, I am told), the dried heads of which are commonly used to give a brushed finish to woolen fabrics. You can read about the teasle raising process here on my web site:
http://newhousehighland.com/heirloom_about.html

It's a good option for those who like a softer, more "fuzzy" hand on their kilts. I just received today a length of my own New House Highland tartan with a teasle raised finish, so I thought I'd give a review of my first impressions. It is similar to (though not exactly like) some of the older heavy weight saxony kilts I have dealt with. This is a worsted cloth, to be sure, but the brushed finish does give it more of that saxony feel; it's also similar to some of the older regimental weights.

The feel is more tweed-like than the usual smooth feel we typically associate with worsted, but not quite as "hairy" as Harris tweed, for instance. It's an in-between sort of texture. I rather like it.

Actually, what it reminds me the most of is a length of heavy weight worsted I ran through the washer and drier once, just as an experiment in seeing how much the cloth would felt up. The texture is near identical to how that "felted" length came out, the only difference being that there was also some slight shrinkage that occurred with my washed & dried length. No shrinkage is involved in the teasle raising, which you can see from these photos.

These are comparison photos, showing two lengths of my tartan, which were woven together. The cloth was cut in half, one length to be teasle raised, and the other to receive the standard finish.









I took several close up shots, to give a good view of the texture of the weave. The last shot is from more of a distance, to give an idea of the overall effect, and how a kilt may look made from such a cloth, compared to the standard finish. In that final photo, the teasle raised cloth is on the bottom.