Herringbone tweed question.

[Jolyon Wagg]

Hello all,

I'm planning on having a tweed kilt made, and have discovered that the cheapest way is likely to be to source the material and the kiltmaker separately, and then put them together. I have a question about herringbone tweed, and wondered if any resident experts might help...

For an 8yd kilt, I presume I need 4yds of double width tweed. But! The direction of the 'arrow' of the herringbone runs down the length of the roll of cloth, meaning that if the 4yds is split into two, both lengths will have the arrow running in the direction of the long edge. This in turn means that the herringbone arrow would have to run horizontally across the kilt when made.

Is there any way to ensure, instead, that the arrow can run vertically down the kilt? I've seen beautiful tweed kilts on this site where this is achieved, but what's the geometry involved in the source fabric?

Thanks!