An X Marks tartan

[Alan H]

Just an update... I'm collecting swatches from two different potential sources for fabric, possibly three. One mill does only wool. Another does two weights of wool and also weaves poly-viscose. When the swatches come in I will send them around so some of the kiltmakers on the site so that some folks can present an informed opinion to the forum.

When all the data isin place I'll pitch it all at The Chief, along with kiltmaker recommendations and we'll go from there.

Keep in mind that it will take a while for all of this to come together. Nobody is going to have a kilt in their mailbox for at least two months, for sure.

[Alan H]

BTW, a 9-inch sett really is pretty big. I'd support Matt's "judicious" edit of the design down to an 7.5 or 8-inch sett. Look at it this way. The drop on most kilts is around 23-25 inches. A nine-inch sett won't be repeated even three times on the apron on a "normal" sized kilt. An 8-inch sett will be repeated three times, or close to it. A seven inch sett would be repeated three times, plus change.

I notice that some regimental kilts have setts this big, so it's not unheard of, it's just not quite what I'm used to seeing. I'm amenable to being correctd, though.

Anyway, here's what I figured out, and this is a very rough estimate, eh?.... let's say our average X Marks dude has a 40 inch waist. OK, so then each apron is approximately 20 inches, right? I mean, adding in taper and stuff it might be a bit more than that, but it's roughly 20 inches. There are two aprons, inner and outer. That's 40 inches of material right there, in the aprons.

Now we have to cover the other 20 inches of our model waistline with pleats. If each pleat is, as Steve suggests, a one-inch pleat, then that's 20 pleats. Yeah, OK, it might be one or two more than that because of taper from hips to waist, but it's close. Taking an average figure of the depth-of-pleat that Steve has calculated, let's go with the figure of four inches per pleat. One inch of the pleat "shows" and the other three are "hidden" in the other pleats.

20 pleats X 4 inches = 80 inches of material.

OK, add the 40 inches for the apron plus the 80 inches for the pleats and you come with 120 inches of material. It actually might be a bit more, but again, this is a rough estimate. That's 3.33 yards of material. So a "four yard kilt" is do-able with Matt's current sett, and 20 pleats on a 40-inch waist will probably look pretty good for a casual kilt.

If you have a 36 inch waist then you'll get two or three fewer pleats. If you have a 44 inch waist you'll get two or three more pleats.

BTW, I have a 40-inch waist.

I am more than happy to be corrected in this by someone who actually knows what they're talking about. I'm just extrapolating from some stuff I've learned from Steve, Barb and Matt. However, I by no means really know this stuff so don't be shy to comment or correct me on this, please.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

I've made tartan kilts with setts as large as 11.5" and as small as 6.5". If indeed this is woven with a 9.5" sett, this will fall right in the middle, so no worries. You an do a 4 yard, an 8 yard, and anything in between with it, no worries. These are the kind of details your kiltmaker will work out, so I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it.
Aye,
Matt

[Alan H]

I've made tartan kilts with setts as large as 11.5" and as small as 6.5". If indeed this is woven with a 9.5" sett, this will fall right in the middle, so no worries. You an do a 4 yard, an 8 yard, and anything in between with it, no worries. These are the kind of details your kiltmaker will work out, so I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it.
Aye,
Matt

Sounds good to me.

[Alan H]

I've asked for swatches and further information from two sources....

A.) The Celtic Croft, which is the outfit that has "homespun" cloth and says they can order "budget" kilts in a custom weave as long as there's a minimum of 8 kilts ordered.. The company that makes the cloth is in Pakistan and their homespun woll kilts are sewn there, as well. I got no response to a request I sent them for the name of the company that sews them up so that I could look them up on the 'net and see if the firm has any reports of "sweatshop" conditions. So, we'll see. I'll give them another week or so to respond.

B.) N. Bately, Ltd. a smaller weaving firm in England. They do two weights of wool and poly-viscose.

It's been a week since I requested swatches from both of them. Nothing has arrived, though one week turnaround from England is a bit optimistic. Still, the Celtic Croft should have gotten me something, and they haven't. The last correspondance I had from them was asking for a picture of the tartan so that he could ask his weaver if they could produce the fabric. I've had no communication since then.

Fingers crossed that one of these companies has it together enough to come through with swatches, etc.

[Thistle Stop]

The last correspondance I had from them was asking for a picture of the tartan so that he could ask his weaver if they could produce the fabric. I've had no communication since then.

You should send them the half-sett, full-pivot thread count, which Matt can give you.

[Alan H]

I got large swatches of two weights of wool and one of PV from N. Bately today. They look good to me, but I know *nothing*. I'll be sending the swatches on a tour of some of the X Marks kiltmakers and gathering opinions over the next couple of weeks.

I'll gather up the recommendations and pitch 'em at Da Chief!

[Alan H]

The last correspondance I had from them was asking for a picture of the tartan so that he could ask his weaver if they could produce the fabric. I've had no communication since then.

You should send them the half-sett, full-pivot thread count, which Matt can give you.

I think that with the arrival of the swatches from England, plus pricing for material we have from a North American weaver, the Celtic Croft's homespun tartan has pretty much dropped from the running. That it's made in Pakistan doesn't help when we can get great stuff at a good price from the UK and Canada. If they get back to me by the end of the week with great news, then maybe not, but it's not looking so good right now, IMHO.

[Miah]

WOOT! take a photo of the swatch =)

I want to hear all about it.

honestly i had started losing interest in getting another kilt until all this came about.

[Manu]

Right, lets see some pics!