Box pleats

[Allan Thomson]

Steve, no, I've never come across such a thing in old Highland textiles. The widest piece I've ever encountered was 33 inches, woven in 1726 which in itself was unusually wide for the time when cloth was generally 22-26 inches wide.

I find it curious that given that there was a need to produce cloth of 2 yard widths for plaid that this was not done in common practice rather than the stitching together of two smaller bolts?

I guess Loom size is one limiting factor as to sizes, but that begs the question why not just make a wider loom?

Is it related to space constraints in a weavers shed prior to mass construction elsewhere (I guess there were specialist weavers within each community or is it an individual exclusively individual home produced garnment - my guess is based on what I've observed in a preserved local farming village that there would have been a specialist weaver in those communities just as there were specialist black smiths, wood turners, etc)?

I'll have to measure the dimensions of the Black Watch plaid I bought some 20 years back but I'm sure it was between 1 and a half yards to two yards (closer to two yards/metres), I cannot recall if they said this was produced on the local mills hand loom or if it was made in a mill in Scotland and shipped over. Anyway it was pretty much 2 by 3 yards and cost less than £100 then - one looks at the much smaller fly plaids online manufacturers are selling as "kilt wear" and realise that the price is massively inflated in proportion to the amount of cloth you're getting!