I gotta say.... so what if you get a truly perfectly straight line?

I mean, tartan has tons of little lines woven into it, all parallel. It's not like it's hard to get out a good pair of scizzors and cut right along a line, ormidway between two close lines. When I cut it I only vary from dead straight by 2-3 threads, which is totally irrelevant, and there's zero risk of disaster.

Sure it'd be nice to have an absolutely straight cut/tear, but does the 1/16th of an inch variance really matter? No. Every raw edge in a kilt except the end-to-end join is buried anyway, so ravelling is not an issue. No raw edge is seen, because it's buried in the waistband,and I cut a lot more accurately than I sew.. Those end-to-end joins in the back of the pleats are raw edges, too and you know....the folks at the shop that cut your tartan out of the bolt use scizzors. You have to finish off that join by either overlocking the raw edge or folding it under anyway, so once again....no raw edge is really seen.

My In-laws dropped $150 on tartan for this kilt. If there is the *slightest* risk of a tear going awry, there's no way I'm going to take that chance, for no real benefit, when I can cut it out and take NO risk.

Just my opinion. If someone can tell me why tearing and getting a perfectly straight line is much superior to cutting and getting an almost perfectly straight line, I'm willing to listen.