Vintage military kilt cloth query

[OC Richard]

You are referring to the army Cheviot cloth (so-called from the Cheviot wool) used for OR's kilts from around the beginning of the 20th century, possibly a little earlier, until around the 1970s.

That's interesting.

House Of Edgar still weaves (or did up until recently) a lighter-weight version, 18oz as I recall, of that traditional OR-style cloth.

I purchased a Royal Stewart kilt in that cloth, and made with the green binding. Edgar said they had done many of those, for the military I believe they said.

Yes the fabric is quite different from ordinary civilian 16oz worsted kilting cloth, more blanket-like. Due to the fuzzy surface the pattern of the tartan doesn't look as crisp. The sett size is rather larger.

Fairly recent photos of, for example, the Pipes & Drums of 4SCOTS, show a clear difference between the kilt of the Pipe Major (which looks more like civilian 16oz worsted) and the kilts of the other pipers (having that fuzzy look).

So my impression was that this fabric was still being used at least in the pre-RRS uniforms (antecedent dress) maintained by some of the Pipes & Drums. I'll look for photos showing this.

Here, note that the kilt of the PM of 3SCOTS' has a rather smaller sett-size. The relative fuzziness isn't apparent here, but the fabric of the OR's kilt looks identical to the military-spec kilt I purchased from HoE.



Here, note that the kilt of the PM of 4SCOTS (foreground) has the clear distinct tartan of civilian 16oz cloth, while the ORs' kilts have the fuzzy less-distinct pattern of the 18oz ORs' cloth. I've compared swatches of both cloths in a HoE sample-book, and seen both types of kilts in person, so I can assure you it's not an illusion of photography.



In this closeup of a piper of The Highlanders (pre-RRS) you can see how muted the red lines in the Cameron of Erracht tartan are.



In any case, this heavy wooly huge-sett fabric was still being made the last time I checked by House of Edgar. It's not the 22oz stuff, but it might be the closest to it that's widely available now.