Cheap wool in Canada?

[Steve Ashton]

Shoot, that might be why I got such a good deal last summer.
I had a look at Andrew's website, looks like great stuff but a little rich for my blood.
I did find a wool/poly blend at tartantime

https://www.tartantime.uk/poly-cotto...er-wool-tartan

Seems like a reasonable compromise, has anyone any experience with it? I'm looking to make a 4yd box pleat with it

This fabric is the Stirling line from Marton Mills.

Why not take a look at the Balmoral line from Marton Mills. 65% Polyester/35% Rayon. It is what Rocky and I use.

Here is a bolt of the Canadian Maple Leaf Tartan in this fabric.



And what it looks like box pleated.



A box pleat kilt in a light weight fabric will be about the same regardless if it is wool or poly/wool or poly/rayon.

[The Kilted Canadian]

That looks pretty nice to me. How much is the maple leaf poly/rayon tartan?...I couldn't find it on their site.
I'm not sure I understand the difference between the two. I know one has wool and the other rayon, but if the two are similar, I would have thought the poly wool would be better for kilts?
And thank you, and everyone else, who takes the time help out. I am trying to learn, but it's difficult to find out this stuff...even in current year it's a slow process. I appreciate it.

[The Wizard of BC]

If you don't mind I am going to switch into teacher mode.

There are generally four things that will effect the hang and swish of a kilt the most.

First is the weight of the fabric. This is perhaps the most important. Most kilts are made from fabric that weighs between 13 and 16 ounces per linear yard. (36" X 60" = 2160 square inches)
An 8 yard kilt is made from 4 yards of double-width fabric so a kilt made from 16oz fabric will weight right around 4 pounds.
The fabrics usually found in fabric stores will be about 6oz-10oz per linear yard.

The more weight - that better the swish.

Along with the weight is the length of the kilt. A longer kilt has longer pleats which will develop a better pendulum effect making the pleats swish better.

Third is the fabric composition. Wool has been used for kilts for many years. Since before there were synthetics. So wool has always been the preferred kilt fabric.
Today there are a wide range of fabric compositions. Some are good and some terrible for kilts. I personally do not like 100% Cotton fabrics because they wrinkle just by looking at them and cotton will not hold a crease. (You may not remember the days when cotton shirts had to be ironed each time they were washed to put the creases back in.)
The synthetics have some advantages over wool like machine washability and wrinkle resistance but most sythetics are not woven in the heavy weights of traditional wool kilt fabrics.

And finally we come to the weave. Kilt fabrics are woven in what are called Twill. This means that each yarn goes over two or three other yarns leaving prominent diagonal patterns in the cloth. The denim in your blue jeans is a twill fabric.
The twill weave allows the fabric to swish and drape much better than plain weave fabrics which tend to sag and hang less well than twills.


With all of this in mind we then look at how the pleats of a kilt are folded. There are many ways to fold fabric into pleats with knife and box the two most common.

When fabric for a kilt is folded into knife pleats, each pleat will use exactly one repeat of the Tartan pattern if pleated to stripe. The larger the pattern, the deeper the pleat and more fabric used per pleat.



Or slightly more than one repeat of the pattern if pleated to Sett. This sample has 9 layers of fabric stacked up.



If you look at these samples you can see that the fabric ends up piled up in multiple layers. This is what gives a knife pleated kilt its famous swish.


But before we began to used knife pleat kilts were usually folded into box pleats.

In a perfect box pleat each pleat is just three layers thick. This will use less fabric than the knife pleats above so we have begun to refer to knife pleated kilts as 8 yard kilts and box pleated kilts as 4 yard kilts. (a 5 yard kilt is usually a knife pleated kilt with each pleat wider to use less fabric reducing the cost.)



If a knife pleated kilt and box pleated kilt are made from the same fabric - the knife pleated kilt will weigh about twice the box pleated one. If you remember the first factor that effects swish it is weight.

It is usual for a kilt making teacher to advise that a student use the best quality and heaviest weight fabric they can afford.

Can a kilt be made from lighter weight, synthetic fabrics and box pleated? Well yes, it can. And if made well it will look, hang, and swish well.
Will the same kilt made from heavy weight fabric swish better? Yes.

So the wool content of the fabric is a factor but not the only factor you should consider. Polyester/wool blend fabrics are not usually woven for making kilts. They are usually woven for skirts and other light weight garments that should hold a crease and will not be machine washed.

A lighter kilt or one made from synthetics may be preferred for warmer climates or when the intended use is rugged wear.

So you should match the fabric you will make your kilt from, to the intended use of the kilt.
If you need your kilt to be machine washable you should use machine washable fabrics. That will usually mean avoiding wool. (yes, there are machine washable wools but I have not yet found one that would make a very dressy looking kilt.)

And before I close this long lesson there is one additional thing about kilt fabric that should be taken into consideration.

The edge of kilt fabric is woven with what is called a "Selvedge". This means that no hem is needed.



The vast majority of fabric store fabrics will not be woven with a selvedge so will require that the bottom edge be folded up and hemmed.

It is this selvedge edge which is the primary reason that kilt fabrics cost more.

[The Kilted Canadian]

Awesome, thanks!