X Marks tartan...time to order! YAYYYY!!

[Alan H]

First up, many thanks to Steve Ashton of Freedom Kilts for being our "Canadian connection" for the X Marks tartan. With Steve's help we're saving a bundle on this, so next time you're in Victoria, buy Steve a beer. While you're at it, take a look at his Freedom Kilts. Every report is that they're built like a tank and fine-looking, too. Maybe you need TWO new kilts, eh? Sure you do!

Here's the skinny. You can order your X Marks tartan though Freedom Kilts website at http://www.freedomkilts.com. Freedom Kilts is an X Marks advertiser, so you can follow their link at the top of the page, too. You'll be paying for it through PayPal. Click on any of the links that lead to Freedom Kilts order form. There’s a comments section at the bottom of the form. That’s where you tell Steve how many meters of X Marks Tartan you want, and where you want him to mail it. Click on the method of payment you want to use. Freedom Kilts will send you an e-mail which will contain a link in it which will send you to Pay Pal where you actually pony up the dough.

Fraser & Kirkbright have quoted us a very good price as long as we have a minimum order of 25 meters. In Canadian dollars, it’s $58.30 per meter. In US Dollars at the current exchange rate that's $46.86 per meter. This is for their heavyweight kilting wool, and as a number of X Markers have reported, this is very nice stuff.

Remember that this is double-width fabric! Also, remember that the X Marks tartan sett is quite large, and that has a significant implication in terms of how much fabric you need. I did the calculations for a 40 inch waist, with 1 inch of the pleats showing, (twenty pleats) and I calculate that I need an absolute minimum of 7 yards/meters to make a kilt, pleated to sett. That means I have to order a drop-dead minimum of 3.5 meters, and getting just that much doesn't leave any room for error! Pleating to stripe will save you a little, but not a lot. Because of the size of the pattern within the XMarks sett, be careful if you want to pleat to stripe. The "wide" stripe with the yellow line in it is nearly three inches wide, and your kilt will not look "blue" from behind if you pleat it to that stripe. TALK TO YOUR KILTMAKER BEFORE ORDERING. For all intents and purposes, unless you make a box-pleated kilt, you cannot make a "four yard" kilt with this tartan. The nine-inch sett requires a lot of material.

Steve estimates that can ship a kilt/material across the country via Postal Service for about $20.00. That’s above and beyond the cost of the material itself. It’ll be more if you live outside of North America, so be sure to let him know where you live. You can also have it sent to your kiltmaker. Just make sure youtell Steve where you want it shipped.

So, here are some numbers for you. In Canadian dollars, eight meters of kilting width (four meters of actual cloth) material will run you:

4 x $58.30 = $233.20 Cdn. plus the postage to get it to wherever you want it, $20 in North America.

In US Dollars at the current exchange rate it looks like this for enough material for a knife-pleated “eight yard kilt”:

4 x $46.86 = $195.44 US plus the postage to get it to wherever you want it, $20 in North America.

TALK TO YOUR KILTMAKER BEFORE ORDERING. A box-pleated kilt will require a lot less fabric than a knife-pleated kilt. If you’re a Big Guy you might need more fabric. Fabric orders must be made in meters and half-meters. No “I want four and two-eighth yards”…Nope…meters and half-meters. A meter is a little bit more than a yard, but if you simply cannot “think metric” then treat them as the same.

Turnaround time from when we have a commitment for the 25 meter amount is roughly 6 weeks. Remember, we need a minimum of 25 meters for Steve to place the order. That means we’ll need between 6-10 guys to pony up to make this a go. Believe me, I’m in for my 2.5 meters for my box pleated kilt *Right Now*!

X Marks, we all owe Steve Ashton at Freedom Kilts a big THANKS, MATE! on this one!

Alan H


FREEDOM KILTS:::: http://www.freedomkilts.com

"CRY FREEDOM! and let slip the legs of woe."

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Good job, Alan! Nice to see that you went with the heavy weight. This will make for a nice four-yard box pleated kilt, as well as an eight yard knife pleated kilt. Very versitile.

So, who wants to be the first to have their X-Marks kilt made by the guy who designed the tartan? :-)

Seriously, when the cloth actually comes in, assuming as least one person wants a box pleated kilt from it, I should have enough cloth left over from that to send the STA a sample of the tartan (they need a sample big enough at least to show one repeat of the sett) to be recorded.

I can go ahead and get it "noted" to start the ball rolling, but they really prefer to have actual samples on file.

Aye,
Matt

[Alan H]

I know my yardage (meterage?) will be winging it's way to one M.A.C. Newsome for a box pleated kilt, and I'm *seriously* digging this.

[Alan H]

I just ordered my 2.5 meters. *whew*!

[The Wizard of BC]

I'm gonna have to make a small correction to Allan's post.

The cost for a meter of the X Marks Tartan is $53.00cdn. I think a 10% handling fee to cover my time and effort is not out of line. That will bring the cost of the fabric to $58.30cdn/meter

For those who don't do metric, 4 meters = 4.37 yards
$58.30 cdn = $47.15 usd, by today's rate.

I will ship world wide for a flat rate of $20.00cdn

That means if you order enough fabric for an 8 yard kilt it will cost;

4 meters of 60" Fabric @ $58.30/meter = $233.20 cdn
Shipping = $20.00 cdn
Total = $253.20 cdn

We must order a minimum of 25 meters from Fraser Kirkbright. That is a total of over $1450.00. I cannot afford to be out of pocket for that much, so I'm going to require a full 25 meters worth of payed orders before I will call the mill and have them start weaving. I will give the mill 50% to start the job and pay the remaining 50% upon delivery of the fabric to me.

I also will not feel comfortable keeping other people's money, so I will not send paypal invoices until a full 25 meters is ordered.

Paypal charges me a fee for each transaction so if this thing falls through I will refund your money, but minus the paypal charge.

I hate to be a stickler about this, but Hank can't even get 50 guys to order an X Marks kilt pin for $25.00.

Allan is in for his 4 yards. I'm in for mine. Let's see how many others are willing to pony up.

[Doc Hudson]

I won't be ordering more than 1.5 meters, is the shipping still $20.00, or would it be less for the lighter weight? And is that $20.00 USD or CDN?

[The Wizard of BC]

The $20.00 I quoted is in Canadian dollars.

As to charging a flat rate, it was the only way I have of preventing having to take each order's fabric down to the Post office and getting it weighed, and have the Postage quoted by destination and then calling each person and revising their final cost.

I will go to the post office and see if there is a simplier way. I'll post an answer and update tomorrow after I get home from the shop.

[The Wizard of BC]

I now have an on-line shipping charges calculator that will allow me to charge only the amount of shipping each customer incures depending on their location.

Please disregard the flat rate shipping charge of $20.00.

[Alan H]

Hey, if you go and put n an order, would you be so kind as to let us know, here?

Tha anticipation is killing me and I'm having a hard time believing that nobody has ordered!

[Hamish]

My thanks to everyone who has worked so hard to get this one up and running.

I have just passed my order for 4 metres to Steve, and look forward to having it made into a First Class traditional 8 yard, knife-pleated, kilt in Scotland.

Unfortunately, it will not be available for me to pick up whilst in Vancouver in three/four weeks time - I just hope I don't get stung harshly by our Authorities as it is shipped into the United Kingdom. It'll be a rather expensive kilt if that happens!!

Come on the rest of you - get ordering.....