Where can I get medium weight Poly-viscose?

[Maryp]

Im looking t make a poly-viscose or poly-wool kilt in the Frasier Modern tartan. All I can find is 11oz. Can I get in in a medium (13oz) weight? any one know.

Thanks in advance
Mary

[Spartan Tartan]

I'm sure others more knowledgeable than myself will weigh in here and correct me if I am wrong...

I do not think they make PV in 13oz. I'm pretty sure that 11oz is the weight for PV material. I could be wrong about that, but I have always thought of kilt fabric in descending weights: 20+ oz, 18oz, 16oz, 13oz...all wool and the non-wool materials such as PV and other synthetics at 11oz.

Whereas the PV material is light, I used to have one and thought it maintained it shape pretty well. You can't beat the ease to maintain and clean either.

Best of luck in your hunt.

[WillowEstate]

I would agree, true heavy weights are not available in polyviscose. PV fibres tend to be much thinner and smoother than natural wool. You need to be careful of descriptions such as "16 oz PV" because generally, it doesn't exist. I had heard this and followed it up with one vendor advertising such. The reply I got was that no, it didn't weigh 16 oz but "had the look and feel of 16 oz". That's a matter of opinion, to me it feels much smoother than wool but for an everyday kilt, that's just fine.

Marton Mills is the best known (only?) supplier of PV material in the UK - you could try contacting them, either directly <http://www.martonmills.com/> or through a kiltmaker who may be able to get a better deal trade than you.

[The Wizard of BC]

To reinforce what has been posted so far Mary,

To my mind Marton Mills are the world's only producer of kilt quality P/V. P/V by the way is a blend of 65% Polyester & 35% Rayon. There are a lot of fabrics out there advertised as P/V that are not actually Poly/Rayon.

The Marton Mills fabric weighs 250 grams per square meter.

Kilt fabric is usually purchased double-width or 54" to 60" wide. We have sort of standardized this to 60" for weight comparisons.

So 1 yard of fabric is 36 inches long by 60" wide for a total of 2160 square inches.
One square meter is equal to 1550 square inches.

This means that the Marton Mills fabric would come out to 12.27 ounces per fabric yard.

That is .75 ounce less per yard than medium weight kilt wool. The total difference between a Marton Mills 8 yard kilt and the same kilt made from 13oz wool would be only about 3 ounces.

[Grizzled Ian]

Hi Mary,

The kilt I worked on with Steve at Kilt Kamp is Victoria City of Gardens tartan in Marton Mills PV, so presumably about 12 1/4 oz material. It has 23 pleats, from memory 5/8in wide each. I'm still working on it (no surprise there), so I've not yet cut the tops out of any pleats, or finished the pockets, nor added waistband or buckles and straps, but it feels like a reasonably heavy garment already.

It is a smooth feeling fabric, not furry like wool, and the weave of wool seems microscopically larger and more open, which also adds to an impression that PV is denser and heavier.

Whatever the technicalities are, I have a USAKilts Casual kilt in PV that feels substantially lighter than my incomplete VCOG.

All the best for tracking down the material you want,