fabric stores are dangerous places...

**Alan H** · 11th January 07, 09:43 AM

I have to stop myself. it's an act of self-discipline. I will NOT allow myself to buy fabric for more than two projects ahead of the current one.

I gotta tell ya, sometimes it's hard!!!!

**cessna152towser** · 11th January 07, 10:42 AM

Looks like you'll be busy sewing kilts for a while.

**Erisianmonkey** · 11th January 07, 11:04 AM

Originally Posted by JimB

Definitely dangerous!
My wife has put a hold on me for now, mainly because I'm starting to stack it up faster than I can sew it. But that last delivery from Denver Fabrics sure is going to make a pretty kilt!!!
Here's what I found there (on the internet)

I saw several of those in the wool racks. I did not see any tartans in the wool blends, if that helps. I didn't buy any wool because of the need it has for drycleaning and my need to have machine washables (read also, I'm usually broke)

Originally Posted by cessna152towser

Looks like you'll be busy sewing kilts for a while.

Yep. As soon as we get settled in at the new place, the sewing machine comes out. The trick is going to be getting out a skirt for my wife and new kilts for me without falling behind in the classes that start next week!

**Andrew Breecher** · 12th January 07, 12:49 AM

I recently got some fabric of a different nature: I'm going to make a backpack for my next hike. Now I just need a source of thick (2-3mm) plastic for a framesheet.

Andrew.

**MacWage** · 12th January 07, 06:14 AM

A tartan, as now understood is a pattern of criss-crossed lines that form a regular pattern and are the same on weft and weave. However, "Welsh tartans" often DO NOT match weft and weave. Orginally, tartan refered to the fabric itself, which was "hard" faced worsted wool in a twill.
Today, some only use the term for "registered" tartans.
Those "psuedo-tartans" are termed "bumbee" tartans, or "fashion tartans" (which can be either registered or unregistered, but don't have a specific clan association).

To understand tartan, know there are literally thousands of registered tartans and many are not easy to ID and may unitentially be copied by a well-meaning fabric mill. Also, that they are named onlt about 1800.
Mill manufactures used to number the patterns, but during the romanticism era and the days of Walter Scott's books and Burns poetry, they began to apply names to ID the patterns. Some names were adopted from regiments (like Black Watch and Gordon), while others were from large orders of a pattern (like MacPherson). Some were artifacts (like Culloden), while others were just random names added for a sense of romance. Clans then adopted the tartan bearing their names, or designed some for themselves or adopted the pattern of an old family heirloom.
THAT is the reason manny say, "wear what you like," but know what it means if it does mean something. I dub my own "bumbee" tartans and have "Jedi" (the one worn at Greenville Games) "Batman" (the blue and black one in the most recent material in a great kilt thread) and "Auld South." The author and Kilt maker Bob Martin did that to some material he had and someone wrote down the thread count and submitted it as Martin Tartan, which is now registered as such.

If I find a some material I like, but don't know if it is a real tartan, I buy anyways. If I can ID it, better. It is MUCH cheaper to experiment with that than Strome, but Strome makes a MUCH better looking and wearing kilt (especially in box pleats).

**Gaian** · 13th January 07, 08:06 AM

I'm with you there. Too much temptation going on in those places. I have enough fabric on deck to keep me sewing kilts until the end of time. It desn't help that there is a wooolen fabric outlet three blocks from my house and I have to walk by it every day on my way to and from work. Sometimes it calls out to me and I cannot resist ... Can't wait to wear that earthy brown tartan in Italian lambswool that I picked up as a remnant. So soft and buttery feeling.Three yards for $20.00. It made a great contemporary style 6 yard kilt. Then there is the 8 yarder in a tropical weight wool. The whole thing weighs abot a pound but hangs so nicely and pleated up so well. I can wear it all summer long and it gets hot and humid here. I could go on but I have to get working on the others so little time so much great fabric.

**beowulf67** · 13th January 07, 09:48 AM

Reading this makes me wish I knew how to sew. But it takes me half an hour to get a button back on. Kilts are out for now!

I believe that black you showed is actually comprised of the cosmic material that makes up a black hole. Nothing can escape it's pull, including light.

**Erisianmonkey** · 13th January 07, 10:49 AM

Following MacWage's practice of naming his generic or "bumbee" tartans, I think this one could be called "decepticon." From a distance, the red and blue combine somewhat and look like pink. When you get close, then you see that it's blue and red. Despite what I said about wearing pink in another thread, I'm anxious to get one of the kilts I'm going to get out of this made.

And you may be right. That bull denim does seem to be dyed with the stuff of black holes. That might explain why my backpack weighed 80 lbs coming home too!

**Warlock** · 13th January 07, 11:21 AM

WOW! That's nice!

**ScottInNewHampshire** · 13th January 07, 10:10 PM

Ashamed to say that I hound the local Walmart fabric departments. I have purchased entire bolts of handsome "home spun" plaids usually for $1.00 per yard. That's enough for "a whole 9 yard" kilt twice over with enouth left for a couple of 1.5 meter flys, too.

By the way, I heard that Walmart is going to phase out it's fabrics. Heard it from one of their employees who works in that department. Time to STOCK UP!!