My order from Lochcarron arrived

[SF Jeff]

One difference between Lochcarron and House of Edgar is that fabric from HoE is coated in Teflon (making it stain repelling).

I've heard this. I wonder how it affects the hand and drape of the fabric.

If you're in or near SF, a visit to Wm Glen & Son might be fun. They do Scots Whisky tastings as well as offering made to measure kilts using cloth from pretty much all the premier mills in Scotland. I don't know whether they sew them themselves or import them from a house that sews them in the UK.

I just posted about them in another thread. Nice store and it's where I bought my first kilt. Label says "Made in Scotland." I'm no longer in the bay area and only visit occasionally, but next time I do I'll make an effort to get into the city and stop in.

Regarding the yardage of cloth in your kilts: one thing I like about St. Kilda kilts is that they actually indicate approximately how many yards of fabric are required for a kilt, based on body size (and incrementally priced accordingly).

I think the more reputable kilt makers do this. They don't promise an exact yardage to be used, but give a range based on the size of the kilt and the pleating options. Others just say "Full 9 yard kilt!!!" and that may not be the case.

[User]

If you don't have it, I'd advise you to buy Barb Tewksbury's book (The Art of Kiltmaking). In it's current (3rd) printing, color plates have been replaced by B/W, but there's a link to download the color images, and the book (available from Amazon, or The Celtic Croft, or from Barb herself) is much cheaper in monochrome. Her kilts are made entirely by hand and are exquisite.

Thank you kindly. That is the text I'm using. I was really hoping to get a copy of Mr. Ashton's kiltmaking book. But, upon hearing that it will never be available, I purchased Ms. Tewksbury's book.

[tripleblessed]

Opting for wool instead of man-made is a decision you will never regret. Personally, I am puzzled by the popularity of synthetic materials, especially kiltings, when wool is superior in every way, including being environmentally sound and culturally authentic.

Overall, I agree. However, there are those who are allergic to wool, and can wind up in a hospital. There are those who find it simply uncomfortable and prefer other
fabric. Personally, my Lewis hose are the only wool garments I have ever found comfortable against my skin, so wool kilts are worn less than PV. In any other
situation I prefer natural to man made. No wool sweaters for me. Actually, I don't like long sleeves of any kind, but as I have gotten closer to 80 than 75, I have ceased riding bicycles without sleeves when temperatures are below freezing. And I will grudgingly wear them when short sleeves are inappropriate.

[RGM1]

Is all HoE fabric Teflon coated?

[jsrnephdoc]

Is all HoE fabric Teflon coated?

I don't know, but House of Edgar have an email inquiry address. The folks at USA Kilts might know as well. My sense from my own kilts and their varied origins is that the coating doesn't affect the way the garments feel or hang on one's body.

Of course, given that "Teflon" (trademarked by DuPont) is the ORIGINAL "forever" chemical, one wonders what that unearthed fragment of the Glen Afrric tartan might have looked like had Teflon been invented in the 17th rather than 20th century.

A cousin one generation ahead of me was a DuPont chemical engineer who played some important role in the development of PFTE. When I was a little boy, he was regarded as THE true wizard of the family. Today people would be blaming the plastic merging with itself in the Pacific on him. Go figure.

[tripleblessed]

Of course, given that "Teflon" (trademarked by DuPont) is the ORIGINAL "forever" chemical

Off topic but related, Teflon reportedly has showed up in the blood of people in remote parts of Siberia thousands of miles from any known source. Of course,
you can read all kinds of stuff without being able to verify.

[jsrnephdoc]

Off topic but related, Teflon reportedly has showed up in the blood of people in remote parts of Siberia thousands of miles from any known source. Of course,
you can read all kinds of stuff without being able to verify.

Most of the mills use "finishers," who specialize in cleaning the fabric once it's woven. Some may do that in-house, but Lochcarron sends their fabric to a dedicated finisher who say that they're "certified organic," which of course means they don't coat their fabric with teflon.

[DCampbell16B]

Off topic but related, Teflon reportedly has showed up in the blood of people in remote parts of Siberia thousands of miles from any known source. Of course,
you can read all kinds of stuff without being able to verify.

More off topic, but I can actually speak to that. This was back in the late 90's. Our lab was one of only about three in the country that had specialized instruments to do sensitive development work for pharmaceutical companies. One of the projects was to find this drug in rabbit plasma. Two of my lab partners worked on it directly, while I was only peripheral. Dave Anderson could not find blank rabbit plasma for this drug. This interference kept getting in the way. It was even in our high purity water generator. Commercial sources of rabbit plasma had this interference. Then we found it in human plasma. Eventually we did find a source of rabbit plasma without this interference, and it was from rabbits raised in Siberia (at that time, I don't know about now). The interference was PFOA/PFAS from Teflon. Whether Dave was the first to find it, or just found how far it had traveled I don't remember. We did get some journal papers out of it. And the owner of the company was asking me a few months ago what I remembered, as he had to discuss it at an upcoming conference.