Have you ever shopped here? Checking out tartan fabric.

[Paul Henry]

What is "plain weave?"

Most kilts are made from twill weave, with the recognisable diagonal line on the surface of the cloth, which is often a 2/2 twill ( 2 threads under/2 over), a plain weave is a simple under/over each thread which is how most other fabric is woven.
Twill makes a more durable cloth, but needs 4 heddles rather than 2 , which means it is a little more complex to produce, but not esentially more difficult to make.

[TheOfficialBren]

Oic. Thank you, Paul.

[sydnie7]

Wiki on twill

Wiki on plain weave

Provides some good visuals.

[Barb T]

Traditional tartan kilts are made from twill, a weave that produces a diagonal pattern in the weave by passing weft threads over two and under two, but offset by one thread from pick to pick. Plain weave is over one under one, the kind of weave that you see in standard shirt fabric. Twill produces a more "shape-able" fabric, which is useful for the kind of shaping and steaming used in kiltmaking.

[fluter]

Here's a photo showing the diagonal lines. The edge on the right is the selvedge. This is Lochcarron 16-ounce fabric (purchased from ScotWeb). If I ever finish the projects I'm working on, it will become a 4-yard box pleat.

WallaceH2 by arcturus1997, on Flickr

[creagdhubh]

Maybe I missed it, but i don't see anything about tartan weight nor about kilting selvedge. I'd want to know about both those things. And, if you were making a kilt, you wouldn't want the plain weave.

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[M. A. C. Newsome]

That is the retail site for Ingles Buchan, which is a good and reputable company. The cloth they sell is 9 oz spring weight plain weave and not suitable for kilt making. It's great for use in ties, fashion scarves, sashes, etc., that sort of thing.

[Paul Henry]

That is the retail site for Ingles Buchan, which is a good and reputable company. The cloth they sell is 9 oz spring weight plain weave and not suitable for kilt making. It's great for use in ties, fashion scarves, sashes, etc., that sort of thing.

Actually they do 8 oz plain weave , 10 oz twill and will weave 16oz twill if asked,, in fact they wove the St Ninian for Matt, obviously as a special, but still appears to be available on their website

[TheOfficialBren]

Cool. Thanks, guys.

Matt, you do offer customer-supplied fabric options on your website, I see.

Would two yards of double-width 13oz tartan from Strathmore be suitable for a 4-yard box pleated kilt?

Thank you.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Actually they do 8 oz plain weave , 10 oz twill and will weave 16oz twill if asked,, in fact they wove the St Ninian for Matt, obviously as a special, but still appears to be available on their website

True, they are capable of weaving any weight cloth. Thank you for the clarification. The bulk of the cloth offered on their web site, which is plain weave, is the 8/9oz spring weight. This is what I was referring to, in response to the question of what weight the fabric was.