Hi folks

If it's truly tartan, it won't look any different turned 90 degrees. The definition of tartan is that the warp and weft have the same size, order, and number of stripes of color. If the warp and weft are not identical, it isn't tartan. There's lots of "plaid" fabric out there that isn't tartan, and those are the ones that might have a prominent stripe going warp-wise but not weft-wise. So, the problem doesn't actually arise if you are dealing with tartan.

But, if you have a piece (such as the pin stripe fabric), or if you are just using a piece of plaid fabric that isn't tartan, you could certainly turn the fabric 90 degrees. But, given that fabric is not more than 56" wide, you'd have to put a join in the fabric at five or six places across a kilt that uses 8 yards of fabric. It takes me about an hour to do one join right, and, frankly, it would need to be a really special piece of fabric to get me to add 5 hours to the kiltmaking process!!

Barb