face of fabric ??

[Barb T]

I'm a picky traditionalist, so I care. But, frankly, most people don't notice. And, for the last several years (this didn't used to be true, actually), I've gotten fabric from Lochcarron actually _labelled_ with the the front side as the one with the right-slanting twill line. This is a potential problem for traditionalists, but, as someone pointed out, modern weaving is so good that the right and wrong sides are typically quite equally perfect. Dalgliesh still folds their double-weave tartan with the right side (left slanting twill line) inside (that's the traditional way of folding expensive fabric so that the right side is protected from dirt and damage).

In the long run, it doesn't matter a jot to how a kilt looks or hangs. I wouldn't stress about it. I still intend to make kilts with a left slanting twill line, but, as long as the whole kilt is done to one slant, I wouldn't dump on someone for doing it the other way, particularly if, for some reason, the mill wove something that _looked_ a whole lot better on one side than the other.

Believe it or not, I've actually seen a kilt made with a back join that had the twill line going one way to the left of the center back and one way to the right of the center back! There's a picture of it in my book, and I've pasted it below (the red stripe is the center back). As you'll see, it has a colossal number of other pleating errors as well.


Barb