Looking for a company to make Family Tartan Fabric

[Priest]

Hey everyone. I have been website searching and forum browsing trying to find a decent company that can create the fabric for my family tartan. I realize that it isn't going to be that cheap but I would like to find the best quality for a decent price. It is not a mass produced tartan pattern so it will need to be created. I have created a Clan page for the McGahen family name with a nice membership growth and if I can get enough interested in purchasing then maybe I can find a company that can give us a good deal on making the fabric or products we want. I have checked out some of the sponsor pages on here and thought I would ask if anyone had any other insight on other companys I would appreciate your input.

[davidlpope]

DC Dalgleish or Robin Elliot in Selkirk.

[The Wizard of BC]

Almost any weaving company will do runs of any Tartan you can design.

The snag is that most of them have a minimum yardage that is between 30 and 65 meters, double-width.

Lochcarron will do a minimum run of 11meters double-width.

My go-to weaver for short runs is Marton Mills. They have done the Victoria, City of Gardens, USMC Dress Blue, Palmer Heritage, and they are who wove every run of the X Marks Tartan since 2009.

They can weave in P/V or any weight of wool.
Their minimum yardage is 11 meters double-width.

The price is not quite double that of a stock Tartan that they are weaving 100 meters of.

But over price I value the consistent high quality. I have only ever had one piece of fabric come from them that was not perfect. As soon as I pointed it out they gave me full credit for the yardage that was below standard. That is pretty good customer service standing behind their product like that.

I have bought fabric from almost every UK based weaving company. For price and quality Marton Mills will continue to get my business.

[Benning Boy]

I've been corresponding with Marton Mills about a couple of projects and have found them very willing to help. I feel like I'm being treated like a major customer buying 100 meters or more at a time, and I'm only discussing shorter lengths. The minimum order is 11 meters, but you will have to pay for a bit more most likely, as the looms aren't trained to weave exactly 11 meters then stop. You can get 11 meters of double width fabric from Marton Mills for about half the price of 11 meters of single width fabric from Dalgleish. PM me when you're ready and I'll give you email addresses to the right people.

[Catharps]

This is a great thread! I'm interested in getting the Swan clan tartan created again at some point in the future. Please keep us posted on what you decide and how it goes!

[Priest]

This is a great thread! I'm interested in getting the Swan clan tartan created again at some point in the future. Please keep us posted on what you decide and how it goes!

I have sent requests to all three that were suggested but the most promising so far seems to be Martin Mills. Fast response and professional.

[HarveyH]

Marton Mills are a big mill. The cloth is very even and well made, but for those on this site who get a bit specific it has a tuck selvedge.

Andrew Elliott and Dalgleish will both produce a traditional selvedge cloth.

Elliott's is a trade weaving mill, although I am sure that Robin Elliott would not turn down a decent order, Elliot's is a proper old family mill and is not set up for dealing with retail customers who do not really understand the sorts of questions which will arise in the course of commissioning cloth. Don't expect the instant response, the weaver can't be on the loom and answering e-mails at the same time. And it won't be a quick process.

As for Dalgleish, the more I hear of the difficulties of dealing with them, the more I think that someone does not really want the company to survive as a weaving house. I don't think it is a secret that they haven't woven double width cloth for over a year, sub-contracting any such work.

But as you say Marton Mills are very professional, exactly what you would expect from a big company.

[James Hood]

In this experience, D C Dalgliesh required a fairly long run at an expensive price for the desired tartan, however did offer a substantial discount on the additional yardage, which was accepted.

End product is of superb quality.

Bonnie Heather Greene efficiently did all the liaison, as she knows them personally.

[davidlpope]

Harvey,

To whom has Dalgleish been subcontracting their DW commissions?

[Nick Fiddes]

Hi guys,

I've been very quiet on these boards for a while, mostly as I've been very very busy with working on various fronts to help ensure that DC Dalgliesh does indeed not only survive but also flourishes and is reborn as a top quality weaving house. ;-) In fact, at this moment I'm touring the US on a mission to seek out new markets for our product.

But I thought I'd take this opportunity for a bit of an update, so that I can share facts which may not always be the same as rumours. We hear a lot of stuff about us that's often so far from the truth that we have to wonder where the word of mouth started. And I wish I had more time to keep up with this place. But with two fast-moving businesses (and two small kids) I'm afraid some things have to give.

So firstly, to respond to the last point, I'm afraid I'm not going to share all the details of our production because that's commercially confidential, so you guys can speculate all you like and I won't confirm or deny. All I'll say is that we are still very busy weaving on our own looms in-house (despite more than one customer we know having "heard" we weren't) and we also sometimes outsource parts of jobs, just as Kenneth used to, and just as every other weaver does and always has. It's one of the nice things about this industry that we help each other out.

This might be because because looms our down due to renovation or maintenance (and yes, some of our double width looms in particular were allowed to get into a poor condition by the previous owners, which we are working hard to upgrade) or because we're too busy at the time to meet our promised production schedule on that particular demand, or it might be because it's specialised in some way. For example we're now extending our ranges to offer not just the wools and silks we always have, but also tweeds, cashmeres, and various other yarn qualities and mixes. You'll see one or two of these on our newly updated web site already. This seems like sensible product extension to us, providing our specialist skills in producing beautiful tartans for new markets. But converting our own looms for a cashmere run would be ridiculously inefficient way to operate.

In the past few years we've been on a steep learning curve, and there's been a vast amount of very fundamental ground work to do, in updating an operation that was run out of one man's head in exactly (and I do mean exactly) the same ways that his father did things fifty year previously, into a fit-for-purpose business for today. I fully admit there have been times during that period, with so many changes and inevitable crises from time to time, when with our limited resources we've had to focus on one area of the business and other aspects have suffered. But at every turn we've done our very best not to let anyone down and, where we've failed, to put the problem right.

But I now think we're through the worst of that. We have a customer service operation where the phones are being answered quickly, and the emails replied to promptly. Our product quality standards are not only as good but actually even better than before. And our delivery is as fast as ever, and often much faster. We also have some very interesting new products coming through.

Of course, not everyone likes every change we've made. We've had to reduce some stock ranges where we were spending a fortune on stocking fabrics Kenny had chosen which simply didn't sell. We've introduced a 'set up' charge to avoid weaving short runs at a significant financial loss on each piece - hardly surprising that the customer doesn't like to pay more, but inevitable if we want the facility to survive. (The alternative would simply have been to make short lengths unavailable.) And some commercial customers have found it hard to get used to our new system of insisting they confirm the details of every order before we proceed, but we couldn't afford to keep compensating customers for 'errors' which were mostly down to simple communication confusions.

On the plus side, we now have a far more consistent and reliable stock yarn range, meaning that unlike in Kenny's day (which of course is rose-tinted in many people's eyes) a customer returning for the same fabric a year or two later will actually receive one woven in the same colours. We use machinery which ensures that the fabric comes off the loom right first time far more reliably. And we can compete with the other mills not only on quality but also on price.

And talking of price, well of course a single kilt length woven on a traditional shuttle loom is quite expensive. If you haven't already, watch the video on the DC Dalgliesh web site to see why! But as soon as volumes start to increase, prices fall. And I'm pleased that as a business we are no longer reliant only on the short runs on which our reputation has long been based, but can also produce in volume to the same high standards but very competitively. Our new price list will be published shortly (we've had no change for more than two years) and by my reckoning we'll be the most competitive of all the main weavers for a large proportion of jobs.

There's a lot more to come too, but I won't share that until it's all ready. But trust me, we're not going anywhere. We wouldn't have invested all we have (and not just in money terms) without a strong long term vision, which is only now slowly starting to emerge. Anyone who has specific issues is always welcome to contact me directly and I'll try to resolve whatever the question is myself or get someone in our team to. We really do intend to walk the talk, and would appreciate very much if people would not always take at face value the stuff you hear otherwise.... :-)

Cheers

Nick