Advice needed: Special Weave Kilt - 15/16 oz worsted wool - 8yds Traditional

**ForresterModern** · 14th October 12, 01:07 PM

As it appears that you designed several different versions of the tartan on Scotweb's tartan design online device I believe you may need to talk to Nick Fiddes at Scotweb about having the tartan woven, as my memory makes me think that there are some restrictions about who can weave the stuff designed on their website. Nice thing is that DC Dalgleish is now in house for Scotweb so not really a problem. But Scotweb does offer their Balmoral 8yd kilt made up in your tartan for $530 I believe, which is only $10 more than the cost of custom woven 8 yards of 16oz single width tartan by them.

I have one Balmoral built scotweb kilt that is quite well made and without obvious flaws or deficiencies, and Nick and the folks at Scotweb are pretty good people to work with.

jeff

**cable scot** · 14th October 12, 02:06 PM

*** to what Jeff said,I have a Balmoral as well and have no regrets.If you do want to have it made in the U.S. Bonnie green is a good choice.

Andy

**unixken** · 14th October 12, 02:23 PM

Originally Posted by ForresterModern

But Scotweb does offer their Balmoral 8yd kilt made up in your tartan for $530 I believe, which is only $10 more than the cost of custom woven 8 yards of 16oz single width tartan by them.

$530 would be an awesome price for a custom weave, but that's not going to happen. You might get a stock tartan 8-yard for that, but not a custom weave. I've priced out my next two wish-list 8-yarders from Scotweb - one in Buchanan Clan Reproduction (15 oz wool by DC Dalgliesh), and one in Buchanan Clan Hunting, Ancient (also in 15 oz from DCD). And those, with the X-Marks discount, are $890 each. On Scotweb's site, the standard stock tartan price is the default shown, until you drill down through the tartan selection screens. As you view the fabric selections, you see how the price changes depending upon whether the tartan is stock or not, the color scheme, the fabric weight, and the mill.

**Downunder Kilt** · 14th October 12, 02:24 PM

Originally Posted by ForresterModern

As it appears that you designed several different versions of the tartan on Scotweb's tartan design online device I believe you may need to talk to Nick Fiddes at Scotweb about having the tartan woven, as my memory makes me think that there are some restrictions about who can weave the stuff designed on their website. Nice thing is that DC Dalgleish is now in house for Scotweb so not really a problem. But Scotweb does offer their Balmoral 8yd kilt made up in your tartan for $530 I believe, which is only $10 more than the cost of custom woven 8 yards of 16oz single width tartan by them.

I have one Balmoral built scotweb kilt that is quite well made and without obvious flaws or deficiencies, and Nick and the folks at Scotweb are pretty good people to work with.

jeff

When Scotweb first put it's tartan designer online, there was a condition that any design could only be woven through Scotweb. After repesentations to Nick, he announced, on this forum, that the requirement to do so no longer existed and you were free to have any mill weave any self designed tartan where you used the Scotweb design generator

**kiltmonk** · 14th October 12, 02:34 PM

Hi Jeff,

I had email-contact with scotweb (outing me as xmts-member) and sent an inquiry abot 5 weeks ago. I got an offer from them, which is miles away from your price stated !! A friend of mine had a kilt (special weave also) from them this spring ( at reasonable pricing) and you're right, their quality is undisputed very high, not worth disussing.

With a reasonable offer from them, I probably wouldn't have started this thread, But thanks for your advice !

some remarks to the scotweb designer (from their t&c):
"You may use our online Tartan Designer for any reasonable purpose, free-of-charge and without restriction."

and

"If you wish a tartan you have designed in our system and then had woven elsewhere to be exclusively produced by another weaver, you should notify us in writing, including a full reference to your design in our system including its name and design number."

...additionaly its my design, which is registered at the STR #10606 (May 2012) and quoted as "restricted"

..if I'm wrong, please let me know ..

Kind regards

Marcus

**ForresterModern** · 14th October 12, 02:47 PM

Thanks for the updates and corrections guys and gals---I was working with what I saw on their website for a design I made and was going to have made up into a kilt, along with what I remembered from the initial restrictions of the scotweb tartan design generator. Was not aware that they had changed things so much.

**Barb T** · 16th October 12, 09:59 AM

From a kiltmaker's perspective, this tartan would a difficult one to pleat because there are so many stripes at the pivots and the wider of the two clusters will likely not all fit into one pleat or might fit at the hips but would lose the edge stripes in the taper toward the waist (I'm assuming that the sett size is 7 or 8"). Because the wide cluster of stripes is too big to put into one pleat, the pleat has to be split, and it has to be split symmetrically because it is at a pivot. With so many stripes, it will be difficult (and maybe impossible) to do well. The only real choice is to split the center black stripe half in one pleat and half in another, and it takes a perfectionist kiltmaker to pull that off, and even then, it might look good in the fell but look weird where the pleats open up. Here's a thread that I wrote awhile back that explains the problem.

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...-stripe-33454/

Even pleating to the stripe with the narrower cluster of stripes at the other pivot might not be very good - depends on the size of the pleats and the actual size of your sett. Pleats are typically 3/4-7/8" at the hips, and, if your smaller cluster is in that range, it won't work to pleat to that set of stripes.

Before you commit to a costly custom weave, you might consider a little redesign. Widening the pivot stripes would help, as would either removing some of the narrow stripes at the pivots or moving them farther away from the pivots so that there's space for a 7/8" pleat without running the risk of losing the edge stripes in the taper.

**kiltmonk** · 16th October 12, 10:19 AM

Hi Barb,

thanks for your tips.

According to the (theoretical) scotweb designer, the sett is 5,8 inch / do you not think, assuming this, this would be possible//better ???

Here|S the scotweb print>

http://www.scotweb.co.uk/tartandesign/design/48513

Pleating should be NOT military but to the sett / this should be the solution / or am I wrong ....

Answer appreciated !!

Greez

Marcus

**Barb T** · 17th October 12, 06:50 AM

Originally Posted by kiltmonk

According to the (theoretical) scotweb designer, the sett is 5,8 inch / do you not think, assuming this, this would be possible//better ???

Pleating should be NOT military but to the sett / this should be the solution / or am I wrong ....

If the sett is 5.8" (did I read your post correctly??), the wider cluster of stripes is about 3/4" across. It's very common for kilts to have pleats small than that at the waist, which means that either that pleat would lose the edge stripes in the taper or the kiltmaker would have to split the set of stripes down the center (because this is a pivot in the tartan) and have half in one pleat and half in the other with the black straight up the edges between them. The center black stripe is very narrow, and it will be almost impossible to split well. So, neither option is good. And this is a problem that a kiltmaker would face pleating to the sett, because that element needs to be picked up in pleating to the sett.

One way to fix this would be to make that center black stripe at least 3/8" wide.

5.8" is also quite a small sett for a tartan to be woven in heavy weight. And a potentially challenging one for a kiltmaker. One choice would be either lots of shallow pleats (about 2.75" deep) and probably not being able to get a full 8 yards into a kilt. The other choice would be a smaller number of larger and very deep pleats (about 5.5" deep). This is why the tartan designer recommends aiming for a sett that is 7-8" in size.

**kiltmonk** · 19th November 12, 04:59 PM

Hi folks,

just to keep the rabble informed:

Jonesing started ....

At first, thanks to all the helpful advises here on the forum. Just great !!

I'm going to do this project with Paul Henry. It was a pleasure to discuss different things with him and it was my "stomach" saying: He's the man.

The first is, I now have a pic from the original threads which D.C. Dagliesh will use for weaving the tartan in 15oz worsted wool.

These colours should give more a "muted" appearance than a "modern". That's my guess.

Waiting ...... will keep you updated ...

Greez from Good (C)old Germany

Marcus