Custom Tartan Weaver

[cavscout]

Seeing Arlen's thread about a rare or un-known tartan reminded me about this.

While my family and I were in the mountains this past weekend, we stopped at the FoxFire Folk Museum.

While there we were lucky enough to get to see a lady who does the weaving. She mentioned in her dialog that she does kilting fabric. My wife quickly cut her eyes at me as I gave a little wicked grin and the wheels started turning

She went on to go through basically the entire process from carding and dyeing the wool, spinning it into thread to weaving. Very interesting. She shared a formula for a "pre-treat solution" to help the fibers absorb more of the dye (I'll post it when I dig it out of the papers I collected from the trip). It contained Cream of tarter and alum and enabled her to get very rich colors out of dyes from plants which in my experience always come out very light. She had a yellow yarn she had used this on and it was as bright and rich as if it had come from a craft store. I was shocked when she said it had come from a plant.

A large group showed up toward the end and we had to move on to make room in the small building but I did get to ask about the tartan cloth she weaves.

$100 / yard, 5 yard minimum

She said she really only does it for people who can;t find a mill to weave a rare tartan or for people who need a swatch to send to the Scottish Tartans Authority for registration. She freely admitted that for the more common tartans, ie. Fraser, it's better to go to the big mills and get it from them. But how cool would it be to have a kilt in your family tartan Sheared, dyed, woven and sewn up by hand. Excuse me, I need to sit down on that one

I got her card just for reference. If anyone wants the info drop me PM but you may be able to get in touch with her through the FoxFire Museum also. Oh, here she is on their web site http://www.foxfire.org/prodweaver.html

[Kilted KT]

wow...that would be incredible!

(got the wheels spinning here as well)

hmm..that would put the kilt at around $1,000 US for the final product. Have to save up for that one!

[MacWage]

Relevant question:
Is that for a "double width" (54-60 inches) fabric or a "single width" (25-30 inches)?
Double width takes half the total yardage as a single.

If double, that actually isn't too bad AT ALL!

DC Dalglish (sp?) does its small yardage custom runs in single widths. If bought through Matt and the Scottish Tartan Museum, then it would be $260 for tartan for a 4 yard box-pleat ($65/yard, 4 yards).

If 5 yards double (plus), get together with a friend and split it for 2 kilts and it would be a GREAT deal.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Hmmm.. I don't recognize her by the picture. The Foxfire museum is not that far from us, though, so I'll have to keep my eye out.

That's great that she can actually do kilt cloth and seems to know what it is. There are a ton of hand weavers in this area, but most don't do cloth that is suitable for kilting. I do know a few other hand weavers who will do kilt cloth, and $100 per yard is a fair price.

As MacWage pointed out, you can also order cusom woven tartans through the Museum gift shop, at $65 per yard, with a 4 yard minimum. (This is single width, or 28" wide, and I would assume the hand woven stuff to be single width, also). This cloth is heavy kilt weight, comparable to Lochcarron's strome. Really good stuff.

However, there is a difference in feel and quality between this and hand woven cloth. I'm not saying one is better than the other. They are just different. My Isle of Mull kilt is made from hand woven cloth.


I absolutely love it, and the cloth just doesn't compare to any of my other kilts. Some people have seen and felt this kilt and don't like it as much as the usual machine woven kilt cloth. Others like it better. It really is a matter of taste.

I will always treasure this kilt, not only because it was hand woven but because the lady who wove it is a friend of mine, so that makes it doubly special.

I think anyone looking for that "something special" that you can't get anywhere else should give serious consideration to a kilt made from hand woven cloth.

Aye,
Matt

[CameronTaylor]

My Mom's side of the family, in addtion to the Scots-Irish also traces back to the Norman invasion and such (not going all out with exact history but it is there), there's a direct relation to the Duke of Scheibler from a small town on the western border of Germany called Monschau. That part of the family owner the Red House mill and were weavers. I've been told they also have an exclusive plaid once woven there.
My hope is to one day soon make it to the mill for a visit (now a museum) and either get a sample, a thread count, maybe just a picture and have some custom weaved ( ) to have made into a kilt.


CT - A German kilt ?

[cavscout]

I believe (based on the looms that were in the building) that it would be single width, but I did not ask her specifically. As we came in, my eye was caught by a bright tartan piece lying on a loom (I don't know which). It appeared to be about 30" wide but it draped over the edge and I didn't see how far down it went.

The more I think about it though, the loom in the corner may have been a 60" loom. I'm thinking there was a wide bench on it but was covered with some other things and I just dismissed it....hmmmm. I may have to call just to put the thought to bed.


Thanks for the point of reference MacWage and Matt, I had neglected to consider the width factor.

[Arlen]

That would be so, so cool.
My fiance has just started spinning wool herself. I'm kinda quietly hoping that in a few years time I can enthuse her to start weaving and make me a nice tartan, but ut'd be a lot of work, so I'll have to be extra nice to her.