turning your fabric 90 degrees...

**Jewddha** · 29th January 06, 12:12 PM

Originally Posted by Barb T.

Hi folks

If it's truly tartan, it won't look any different turned 90 degrees. The definition of tartan is that the warp and weft have the same size, order, and number of stripes of color. If the warp and weft are not identical, it isn't tartan. There's lots of "plaid" fabric out there that isn't tartan, and those are the ones that might have a prominent stripe going warp-wise but not weft-wise. So, the problem doesn't actually arise if you are dealing with tartan.

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Barb

But Barb, I though I had heard somewhere about "asymmetrical tartans".

(or did I misread something)

**Barb T** · 29th January 06, 04:19 PM

An asymmetric tartan means that the stripes do not repeat in mirror image fashion (e.g., A-B-C-D-A-B-C-D would be asymmetric, as opposed to A-B-C-D-C-B-A-B-C etc. etc., which would be symmetric, because it has "pivot points" or "mirror points"). The same order is repeated in both the warp and the weft in tartan. An asymmetric non-tartan might have A-B-C-D-A-B-C-D in the warp and A-B-C-E-A-B-C-E in the weft.

If you want a picture, let me know.

Cheers!

Barb