Fellow Xmarks tartan owners....

[Blu (Ontario)]

... Perhaps some of these kiltmakers quoted are 'married' to Scottish mills and are seeking to promote their own interests...

I'll leave that up to the various kiltmakers to answer.

I take pride in our work, so if you have a specific complaint...contact me directly, rather than taking pot-shots from the weeds.

I choose my words carefully. I do not doubt your craftsmanship or your pride in it. I do suggest, however, that a rational discussion to address these specific issues can lead to a positive result for all. I am not the only one affected by this. If in fact these issues are without merit, I shall ask that this thread be expunged from the forum forever.

[Wompet]

Regarding Blu's first post -
Matt Newsome did contact KCW, Dee, and me by e-mail about the bleed-through in the bleed-through at the selvedge, and he gave us the options of hemming the material or using it as is.

Now, when my yardage arrived, it was folded in such a way that the selvedge was not visible, so I based my decision on the picture Matt sent, along with the pictures in Ron's and Hamish's galleries. In the close-up, yes the bleed-through is apparent. In Hamish's photos it is noticeable, particularly if you know it's there. (Think about it - did anyone notice it before the second run?) With Ron's outdoor shots, the lighting is such that it was harder for me to distinguish it, even though I knew it was there.

So I decided: leave the selvedge as is, and if anyone notices I'll:

• congratulate them on their powers of observation,
• tell them that there is a special significance to that stripe being a different hue,
• or ask them why they've been staring at my kilt-line.:rolleyes:

As for the irregularity in the sett, I won't be affected by it. I ordered 4 meters of double-width material, of which Matt is only going to use 4 yards single-width for my kilt. My material is still going to be cut in half, but the halves aren't going to be sewn together, so the sett doesn't have to match. One half will be made into a kilt now, and the other will wait for now.



Gordon -
Matt and Barb initially contacted those members whose kilts they were making (they might have contacted Rocky too, since he's also making some kilts this run). They did not post any sort of criticism on the forum at that time, but told us, their customers, that there a couple of things about the fabric that would impact the making of our kilts. If was only two days ago that it was posted on the forum.

And those posts were in response to MacWage's request for sources of tartan fabric. And rather than simply saying "Don't order from Fraser & Kirkbright PERIOD", and leave everyone wondering "why?", the two kiltmakers who posted cited specific concerns with the material they had used. They did not generalize this criticism to all of your products; they stated that with this run of this tartan, they had encountered a, b, and c. If we buy yardage from you, will we also encounter a, b, and c? Maybe. Maybe not. But we will aware of the possibility, and be able to factor that into our decision-making processes.
There have been other threads where both the professional and amatuer kiltmakers have advised for and against various fabric sources, depending on the seeker's requirements. It's just that this is the first time (to my knowledge) that a specific tartan was mentioned, and that tartan was woven by one of our own.

Okay, I'm going to stop my growling and barking now, and go bark to my usual corner, turn around three times, and lay down.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

This is the first time I'm posting anything on this forum about this, but I felt the need to clarify a few points. I first learned of this issue when I got a phone call from Barb about it. She noticed a problem with the selvedge in the cloth she had and was wondering if I had the same problem. I checked the cloth I had recieved from those X Marks members I am making kilts for, and I saw just what she was talking about.

Here is the issue: F&K use a turn-under method in their selvedge, which a lot of mills use, including most major Scottish tartan mills. No problem with that. But in this particular instance, the broad white stripe of the tartan is close enough to the selvedge that the dark blue threads from the turn-under "bleed through" about half the width of the white stripe.

Neither Barb nor I made kilts from the first run of cloth, so we didn't notice it before. We were curious as to whether the first run looked the same, and we thought to look through Hamish's photo album, as he had a kilt made from the first run:
http://www.imff.net/php/useralbums/h...tHCUp_06_01_11

You can see from the bottom of his kilt that the first run also had this problem. The problem is not with the weave, but with the layout of the tartan. If the white stripe had not been located quite so near to the selvedge edge, this would not have been a problem.

Barb took an up-close photo of the selvedge that shows exactly what I'm talking about. She can post it here if she chooses.

All I did was to contact the three clients I'm making kilts for, explain the issue with the selvedge, and give them two options:
1) Leave it as it is and not worry about it.
2) Have me put a hem in the cloth to hide the selvedge.

I had people choose both options, and I'm happy to comply with their wishes.

For the record, I'm not "married" to any Scottish mill -- in fact, our museum gift shop orders quite a bit of product from Great Scot International, the US distributors for F&K. I can't speak for Barb, but I sincerely doubt she has any ties, formal or informal, to a particular mill. She's an individual kiltmaker and I know sources cloth from a variety of mills. Like myself, she just wants to make her clients aware of any problems *before* we start to cut & sew, rather than have them find out after the fact!

My only advice would be, in future runs of this tartan, to adjust the layout so that the white line doesn't fall so near the selvedge.

[bangkok kilt]

Informative as always Matt.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Gordon wrote:

I take pride in our work, so if you have a specific complaint...contact me directly, rather than taking pot-shots from the weeds.

Just to further comment on that: one of my three clients having kilts made from this cloth asked if anyone had contacted you, Gordon, yet. I told him I did not know.

But I hope you'll forgive me for not contacting you directly. As I was not your customer here, I didn't think it to be my place. In this instance, my clients supplied their own cloth to me, which they purchased from Steve Ashton, which he had woven by yourself.

I recommended to the one who asked that if he wanted to get feedback to you that he first contact Steve, as he was Steve's customer, and then get Steve to talk with you -- as Steve was your direct customer. I thought this the most proper course of action for anyone who wanted to make a comment or complaint. I have no idea if he followed through with that, or decided that it wasn't a big enough deal to make an issue over.

The other two clients of mine haven't expressed (to me) any desire to make this into a big issue.

My main concern, first and foremost, is that my cleints are happy with their kilts. If they are okay, I'm okay. :-) If they didn't think this was a huge deal, then I wasn't going to make a fuss over it.

Again, I'm only discussing this on the forum because my name has been brought up and I felt the need to clairfy what I saw as the main issue before the rumor weeds took over!

All the best!
Matt

[Robin]

Barb emailed me about this on May 8th, she explained the problem and was kind enough to include a picture.

I got the option...hem or a "bleeding" stripe...I'll have to live with the bleeding stripe since I don't want a hem, but it would be much nicer without this problem of course

This is the picture I received...hope Barb don't mind I posted it.

[ronstew]

That's it? That's what we're worrying about? Yeesh.

My jonesing for my 5 yards next month is not diminished at all.